“That’s difficult for me because I love to be liked”: The underrated movie Jack Black was most proud of
Typecasting can often be a dangerous thing for any actor with eyes on sustained success, but Jack Black has used it to his advantage and become one of the most popular stars in Hollywood, thanks entirely to his insistence on being himself at virtually all times.
His boisterous personality and seemingly never-ending energy have kept him in the limelight for well over two decades at this point, with Black’s boundless charisma and infinite levels of enthusiasm endearing him to multiple generations of filmgoers and music lovers alike.
That’s not to say he hasn’t ever gone intentionally against the grain, with one of his best-ever performances coming when he played a murderer. As difficult as it is to imagine him as a killer, Black turned out to be the perfect candidate to play the lead role in Bernie thanks to the unusual true story that inspired the film.
Reuniting with his School of Rock director Richard Linklater for the 2011 black comedy crime thriller, Black headlined the biographical story as Bernhardt Tiede. Having grown so tired of the emotional abuse inflicted upon him by his wealthy and recently-widowed companion, Marjorie Nugent, Bernie murders her and stores her body in a freezer.
For months he continues to go about his daily business pretending as though she isn’t dead until the ruse is discovered and he’s arrested by the authorities, after which the locals of Carthage, Texas rally to his defence due to his standing as a widely beloved pillar of the community, as well as their own shared disdain of Nugent and her behaviour.
Black earned a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Actor – Musical or Comedy’ for his efforts, and he was “very proud” of how Bernie turned out. Understandably for a tour-de-force personality who thrives on making other people happy, there was plenty of trepidation on his part before he agreed to star as a convicted murderer who was handed a life sentence for their crimes.
“The big hurdle for me was playing a guy who murdered someone, you know?” he said to The Guardian. “Someone who’s not a lovable loser, who’s not entirely sympathetic. That’s difficult for me because I love to be liked. So to play a role where there’s some grey area, that’s a vulnerable terrain to tread.”
The actor also had the chance to speak to Tiede and pick his brains about the psychological toll he was placed under by being at Nugent’s side, leading him to describe the imprisoned murderer as “such a sweetheart.” If he ever grows tired of exhausting himself with his bespoke form of manic energy, then Bernie is more than enough to suggest that Black could have a lengthy second act in front of him as a more straight-laced and serious dramatic performer.
