“I’m not used to”: Why Jack Black had trouble starring in ‘The Holiday’
Jack Black isn’t exactly an actor you’d imagine struggles with insecurities. After all, the bombastic comedy icon and Tenacious D star has made a career out of being a dynamo of unbridled enthusiasm and energy on-screen, all wrapped up in a package that pays very little attention to the usual vanities of Hollywood. However, he has admitted a few times to feeling anxious about specific roles, especially when they’re outside his common wheelhouse. In fact, he starred in one film in the mid-2000s that riddled him with such anxiety that he wasn’t sure he could play the part.
In the early ’00s, Black established himself as one of Hollywood’s most popular comedic actors with hit movies like High Fidelity, School of Rock and Shallow Hal. Pretty quickly, though, he began to poke at the boundaries of what audiences expected from him with a role in Peter Jackson’s King Kong. As the fiercely driven filmmaker Carl Denham, a man who dooms much of his crew to death on Skull Island, Black was able to show a much more serious side to himself – although there were still a few opportunities for black comedy.
“There are a few opportunities to be funny in this,” Black told Total Film. “But, you’re right, included in that would be some territory I’ve not dealt with before. Some uncharted stuff for me, and I approached it the same way I approach all my roles. I take them all seriously, funny or not.”
Fascinatingly, though, Black didn’t feel anywhere near as ready the following year when he signed up to star in a Nancy Meyers romantic comedy. While the Christmas-set film was still aiming for laughs, it was in a very different tenor to Black’s usual comedic persona, and the film required him to portray something he’d not had much experience with on-screen: genuine human emotion.
“I mean, every movie I start off really insecure,” Black admitted to Collider, “and this one more so than usual just because it called for a certain amount of, you know, sensitivity that I’m not used to showing.” Black even indicated that he’d never truly attempted “straight-up reality acting,” and he was worried he’d be out of his depth alongside his co-star Kate Winslet.
Of course, the movie in question was The Holiday, which has since become a beloved holiday classic. However, at the time, Black was shocked to even be contacted by Meyers, the rom-com queen known for the Father of the Bride movies, What Women Want, and Something’s Gotta Give. Amusingly, though, one person in Black’s orbit was ecstatic. “I was surprised,” Black admitted. “I don’t usually get offers for romantic comedies, so that was flattering – and my mum was overjoyed.”
Black admitted that he still found it a challenge even once he overcame his insecurities with Meyers’ reassurance that she believed in him. Showing a vulnerable side and trying to portray a sweet romance with an established thespian like Winslet was extremely intimidating for Black, after all. However, he revealed that he was helped out by the fact he wouldn’t have to kiss Winslet in the movie. In fact, when he found out Cameron Diaz and Jude Law would be doing all the heavy petting in the film, he breathed a sigh of relief. “I am not one for big public displays of affection,” Black confessed, “and you can’t get more public than in a major motion picture.”
In the end, Black’s fears were unfounded, as audiences loved his role in the film and believed in his romance with Winslet. Best of all, though, he made his mum happy. “She always wants me to do something in her neck of the woods,” he chuckled, “and although she supports me with The D and with the crazy crap that I do, it’s not really her cup of tea.”
