Jack Black’s first Hollywood arch-nemesis: “He’s tormented me over the years”
Having spent the last quarter of a century perfecting the art of Jack Black, it’s been a long time since the actor and musician has had to worry about competing with anyone else for the roles that he plays.
After all, it reached a point a long time ago where scripts were being written with him specifically in mind to capitalise on his innate Jack Blackishness, and if any director or producer is in need of a Jack Black-type performer, they may as well head straight to the source.
Things were different around the turn of the millennium, though, with the Tenacious D frontman not making a name for himself in Hollywood until High Fidelity. Before that, he was a background player and supporting actor, appearing in a random assortment of films covering virtually every genre.
From Sylvester Stallone’s Demolition Man and Kevin Costner’s Waterworld to Tim Robbins’ Bob Roberts and Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks!, Black would take the work where he could get it. However, he would have landed a couple more juicy gigs if it wasn’t for Philip Seymour Hoffman, the perennial thorn in his side.
“He’s tormented me over the years because we’re like a similar body type, but he’s always been a little bit better than me,” Black acknowledged. “I never saw him at an audition; I would just see him in the movie. I wanted that part in Boogie Nights; I wanted that part in Happiness. I’m a huge fan of his.”
No offence to the exuberant funnyman, but it’s an understatement to say that Hoffman was “a little bit better.” The Academy Award winner was roundly recognised as one of his generation’s premier talents, and he could act circles around Black in his sleep, so it’s easy to see why he lost out on a couple of parts.
They’ve got a similar physical profile, sure, but it’s hard to imagine Black doing justice to Lester Bangs anywhere near as well as Hoffman. As for Todd Solondz’s Happiness? There’s no way he could have pulled that off, considering he still hasn’t given a dramatic performance on a remotely similar level almost three decades later.
Admittedly, there are a couple of jobs where it’s much easier to imagine them swapping places. For example, Hoffman was at his Jack Blackiest in John Hamburg’s Along Came Polly, and when they were both playing minor parts in star-led blockbusters like Twister or Enemy of the State, nobody would have noticed much had they traded places.
That said, from a purely performative standpoint, Black couldn’t lace Hoffman’s acting boots. The latter was probably versatile enough to headline Nacho Libre and get away with it, but you sure as shit couldn’t picture a world where the former starred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia or went toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise as the villain in a Mission: Impossible sequel.
Black’s longevity and popularity should be commended, but his battle with Hoffman was a decidedly one-sided affair, not that it mattered when they eventually took completely different paths to success.
