Jack Black’s “favourite co-star” of all time: “She was really present”
For whatever reason, a quick roll call of the 2000s pop-cultural carousel will heavily feature Jack Black cartoonishly mugging both MTV and the silver screen with hyperanimated fever.
He hasn’t gone away, still lending his manic whirlwind to box office draws in recent movie adaptations of Minecraft and Super Mario Bros. But Black’s well-honed comedic galumph felt plastered all over filmland around 20 years ago, reaching its much-lived peak with School of Rock’s classroom musical, Black’s starring turn as the former guitarist turned supply teacher, the role he was born to play.
It’s likely, however, that Black will always be defined by his joint metal comedy outfit Tenacious D. Dreamed up in the late 1990s with co-star Kyle Gass across TV shows, arena shows, and the Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny movie, Black managed to forge an easy middle-ground with music, the metal duo hanging out with the likes of Dave Grohl for 2002’s ‘Tribute’ smash, and later touring with Foo Fighters in 2011.
With such a colourful CV teeming with the crop of rock and comedy’s leading names, the actor Black namechecked as his favourite co-star may surprise long-time fans. When the question was put to him by Entertainment Tonight in 2024, little hesitation was had in plucking out the Hollywood stalwart he shared top billing with: “Kate Winslet, and I’ll tell you why she was my favourite co-star I’ve ever had. When you look in her eyes, she was really present. And I feel like, if you look into my eyes, you just see a shadow of a robot.”
A seasonal standard in the States, 2006’s The Holiday showcased a gentler side to Black, starring as Winslet’s film composer love interest, Miles Dumont, in the Christmas romantic comedy.
Apparently beating Jimmy Fallon to the role, writer and director Nancy Meyers saw in Black a chance to reinvent the male romantic lead, eschewing traditional criteria of dashing good looks for a more “lovable” and “adorable” take on the rom-com anchored somewhere in the real.
It’s hard to quite glean where his self-deprecatory critique comes from. While lacking Winslet’s acting credentials, Black is armed with a natural gusto that avoids wooden performances or a stiff lack of chemistry. It’s a tough call to step up to such an acting pedigree, but Winslet’s on record for expressing the joy on set working with the comedy star.
“I absolutely loved spending all of that time with him,” Winslet told Bazaar in 2025. “Jack would always improvise, and it was really hard not to crack up laughing.”
Winslet went on to say how Black was gifted with a knack for knocking her professional composure on set, “I take great pride in somehow being able to keep going and powering through. But that’s not possible when you’re working with Jack Black, because he is absolutely hilarious. He comes out with things that are so stupid that you can’t help but just fall apart. So every day with Jack was just brilliant fun.”
