The movie that resulted Jack Black’s ecstasy-fuelled rampage: “There was a lost weekend”
Over the years, Jack Black’s movie persona has been crystallised for audiences worldwide as a rotund, rockin’ party animal whose wild energy is practically unmatched. The A-list actor and satirical rock star has mostly plied his trade in kids’ films for the past decade or so, and these days, he’s a dedicated family man in real life, too. However, there was a time not so long ago when Black was still struggling to cast off the accoutrements of his misspent youth, and it manifested as an ecstasy-fuelled rampage over one blurry weekend while shooting King Kong in New Zealand.
Black grew up in Los Angeles, the child of satellite engineer parents who divorced when he was ten. He has admitted that he has a “love me, don’t leave me” aspect of his personality and believes that manifested as a result of his parents’ marriage breaking down. In his teen years, Black has admitted to being a bit of a tearaway who experimented with alcohol and drugs. In fact, he confessed that some of his antics went way over the line, and he considers himself lucky to have not inadvertently killed himself or someone else.
The School of Rock star told The Independent in 2006: “When I was a kid, I was just looking for fun experiences and you do a lot of crazy things. I don’t think I was even completely sane. I’m lucky to be alive, for sure. It was really the car; that’s when I could have actually died. I was driving around like a maniac.”
Black explained that his parents bought him a Volkswagen Beetle, but if they’d known he was driving it while high and drunk, they would have immediately taken it away from him. Looking back upon his actions, a regretful Black gravely admitted, “There could easily have been someone who ran out in the street, and I could have just killed them, and it would have destroyed my life.”
The star also once told Parade magazine: “I was having a lot of troubles with cocaine. I was hanging out with some pretty rough characters. I was scared to go to school. One of them wanted to kill me. I wanted to get out of there.”
Black was eventually able to move beyond these issues with the help of therapy, but he confessed that when he became a working actor in Hollywood, his drug use reared its head again. He has claimed he was mostly doing it to fit in socially, but it all came to a head with one lost weekend while shooting Peter Jackson’s 2005 King Kong remake.
Black told GQ in 2005 that in the year before he decamped to New Zealand for Kong, he had managed to quit one of his vices: smoking. However, being away from his friends, family, and home city for so long may have caused him to relapse, as he began smoking again on that set. He admitted: “I had a bit of a lost weekend while we were doing King Kong. Look, overall, I’m very responsible on set. I’m not one of those dudes who come drunk to the set. But there was a lost weekend where I had a little extra time off, and I did some ecstasy, and I went on a kind of crazy rampage, and I started smoking.”
Interestingly, Black wasn’t alone in his drug-fuelled escapades. He claimed another prominent member of the cast – “who will remain nameless” – was by his side every step of the way. Black alleged they were “running around, dancing around, drinking and ecstasising, smoking like a chimney.” However, as soon as it began, the party was over, and both stars were back in professional mode for the shoot.
As soon as his tale of excess and debauchery ended, though, Black was quick to assure GQ that this bender was an isolated incident at that point in his life. He claimed, “I seriously don’t party as much as people might imagine. I’m not a wake-and-baker.”
Indeed, these days, Black’s partying days are long behind him – something he credits to becoming a father for the first time in 2006. Hell, even the sheer thought of being responsible for another human life made Black finally commit to something that had caused him so many issues before. He smiled to The Independent, “I even quit smoking two days ago. I’ve been quitting on and off for the last 10 years, but this time I’m really going to quit for real.”
