Nov 20, 2007 - Jack Black was sporting short, bleached-blonde hair at the Los Angeles press junket for writer/director Noah Baumbach’s indie, Margot at the Wedding, and it was all Ben Stiller’s fault. Black’s been busy working on Tropic Thunder which Stiller produced, co-wrote, and directs and, according to Black, the hair was part of Stiller’s vision. “It's his choice,” said Black. “To be fair though it's usually much blonder. The roots are growing out because I'm done with the hair. Well, I still have a couple more days of filming, but I'll be wearing wigs the rest of the way out.”
The wigs are also Stiller’s idea. “This is also the director's vision. No one is straying from Ben Stiller's vision. He rules with an iron vision stick.”
Stiller might rule with an iron stick, but he has to be careful about what he says on the set. Unlike his actors, Stiller would be going against the Writers Guild strike if he strays from the script. “You know, they say that the actor's are allowed to improvise as long as they were not hired as actors/writers,” explained Black. “Sometimes, like Ben is a director/writer and actor - he cannot improvise.”
Stiller’s Tropic Thunder follows a group of actors who, while making a war movie, become involved in a real-life conflict. The cast is loaded with big name actors including Black, Stiller, Matthew McConaughey, Robert Downey Jr, and Tom Cruise. “I'm going to say that it's slightly larger than a cameo,” Black said describing the size of Cruise’s role in the film. “I think that it's more of a crameo. He's cramming more into that cameo slot. He's got a few scenes. It's not just one scene. A true cameo is just one scene, right? It's one day. He's working a few days on it.”
Black’s not going to be sharing any scenes with Cruise in Tropic Thunder. “I did meet him at the read through, but I have not had any scenes with him. I don't have any scenes with him on this movie, but from what I've heard he brings the thunder.”
In other Cruise news, a celebrity blog caused an uproar - and upset the actor - by posting a photo of him in his Tropic Thunder costume. The pic that leaked out on the Internet spoiled what was supposed to be a big surprise regarding Cruise’s character’s physical appearance in the film.
But getting to back to Black, up next for the actor is a role in a Harold Ramis film. “I'm going to do a Harold Ramis movie with Michael Cera. I'm very excited to work with him. It's called The Year One. It's kind of like Monty Python's Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life where it's an examination a little bit about how ridiculous the whole Biblical tales are and how it's probably all bulls--t in a funny way.”
As for Jack Black’s future plans outside of acting, fans of Tenacious D might be disappointed to learn The D won’t be releasing another album anytime soon. “We're writing new songs for the big massive comeback masterpiece album. It should be powerful,” said Black. “I really love the first two albums even though the second album didn't make as much as the first one. I don't want the quality to go down for number three. So look for that around, I don't know, 2012.”
