The hangover that ruined Jack Black’s big break: “This kid better be dead”
In the 1990s, Jack Black began forging a career in Hollywood by appearing in minor bit-part roles in a host of the era’s most enduring movies. The future A-list livewire turned up in eye-catching supporting parts in Waterworld, Dead Man Walking, The Jackal, The Cable Guy, Mars Attacks, and Bio-Dome, establishing himself as one of the decade’s premier “that guy” actors.
During that period, Black also shot a role in a Sylvester Stallone action movie that he was “stoked” to be a part of. To his chagrin, though, when he arrived on the set of the 1993 hit, he was bummed out to discover his part truly was of the ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ variety. By that point, he’d already shot two movies where his character actually had a name – Bob Roberts and Airborne – so to find out he had regressed to the status of “a glorified extra” billed as ‘Wasteland Scrap’ was a significant blow to the young man’s ego.
“I would go to set every morning at 6am, wait all day in the trailer, and then at about 9pm, they would say, ‘Alright, you’re done for the day,'” Black groused to IMDb about his time working on Marco Brambilla’s Demolition Man. “And I didn’t do anything!”
After three weeks of shooting, in which he did nothing except languish in his trailer collecting dust, Black’s spirit was pretty much broken. So, he did what most young people do when they’re feeling low: he partied a little too hard. Naturally, though, fate conspired against him, and the very next morning, while suffering from a hangover for the ages, he finally got that all-important call: he was needed on set.
In a panic, Black quickly threw his clothes on, burst out of the trailer, and began driving to set. Somewhere along the way, though, doubt began to creep into his sleep-deprived brain, and he told himself, “Fuck it, it doesn’t matter”. He’d just spent weeks doing nothing of any note, so why would today be any different? He figured he’d probably end up going unused again, with the only difference being this time he’d be going to waste on a blockbuster movie set instead of an air-conditioned trailer.
A disillusioned Black decided to call his agent to let him know he was planning to blow off Stallone, producer Joel Silver, and everyone else involved in Demolition Man. This was an insane thing for a young star to do, and Black likely cringes when he thinks of his hubris, but thankfully, his agent knew exactly what needed to happen.
With a burning passion and fury that startled the young actor, Black’s agent proceeded to chew him out on the phone, screaming, “I just got a call from Joel Silver, and he said that this Jack Black kid better be dead. They needed you today, Jack. Today was your day on camera!”
This was the cue for an embarrassed Black to haul ass to the Demolition Man set before Silver decided to kill him for real. However, by the time he arrived, he was late and had missed the chance to deliver the one line of dialogue his character was slated for. Most stars on the rise would be disappointed in themselves for missing their big opportunity, or mad at the producer for not letting them say their solitary line anyway. Not Black, though. By the time he spoke about the incident in 2018, his reaction was a hilarious, “Who the fuck cares? I missed a stupid shitty line.”
