The actor Jack Black called a “straight-up badass”
The amount of talent that Jack Black possesses is simply stultifying. Not only has he proven himself in the cinematic medium time and time again, mostly in the comedy genre, but he’s also a widely celebrated musician with one hell of a mighty voice, too, as shown through his work with Tenacious D.
The 21st century has been littered with countless brilliant Jack Black moments, and some of the best comedy movies have arrived with the actor’s presence. From School of Rock and Nacho Libre to The Pick of Destiny and the Kung Fu Panda movies, Black has always been ahead of the game when it comes to contemporary humour.
While Black has indeed gone on to establish himself as a true Hollywood great in his own right, early in his career, he had to make do with a handful of supporting roles. Eventually, though, one of those very roles, in High Fidelity, drew enough attention to get the actor a shot in a leading position, which came with 2001’s Shallow Hal.
Written and directed by the Farrelly brothers, Shallow Hal saw Black play a man who falls in love with a morbidly obese woman after being hypnotised so that he can only see a person’s inner beauty. While the film might not run by today’s ethical standards, in the early 2000s, it was well-received and went on to become a hit, subsequently announcing Black as a solid leading actor.
By that point, the Farrelly brothers had released several hit movies, including Dumb and Dumber and There’s SThere’something About Mary, so Black was keen to take the chance to play for them. Even more than that, though, he had been excited to perform alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, who played Rosemary, the obese love interest of Black’s Hal.
In an interview with GQ, Black spoke of how he felt when he learned that he was not only going to be in a Farrelly brothers movie but also going to co-star with Paltrow. “I was stoked because I was a huge fan of hers, not only as an Academy Award-winning actress, but also I knew that she was funny as hell,” Black said. “I saw her on SNL just absolutely crushing it.”
Black knew that Paltrow would be far more than just a leading lady romantic interest” and that she was, in fact, “a real character actor”. Black went on to say that Paltrow is a “straight-up badass” in the way that she can inhabit a wide range of characters and emotionally understand what it’s like to be in their skin. Also, she was inside a suit that was three times her size,” Black pointed out, noting the physical demands of Paltrow’s role.
Shallow Hal seemed to leave a deep impression of Black, who noted, “It was a really funny script and a really funny story, but it had a lot of emotional underpinnings too.” According to the actor, the Farrelly brothers movie wasn’t just a joke-filled romp, but explored the way that human beings “judge people by the way they look and don’t really go beyond their physical appearance”.
“It had some cool resonance in that way, and I think that’s why it’s stuck around for all these years,” Black said. Indeed, Shallow Hal sticks around as a bit of a classic from the early 2000s, even if it might be borderline offensive in today’s conception. Still, it was the moment Black got to work with one of his favourite actors and proceeded to establish himself in Hollywood.
