Oh boy, here comes another fiery hoop.
Here comes another opportunity to show what I can do,
to dance with the big guns.
To dance with the big guns?
Is that a thing?
[upbeat rock music]
High Fidelity.
So High Fidelity was my big breakthrough role.
I got that because John Cusack
was a fan of my band Tenacious D.
He thought I was funny
and he thought I'd be good in the role.
I was nervous about it
'cause it was a movie and about rock and roll,
and it was about people who worked at a record store,
and were kinda snobby,
and had real strong opinions
on what music was good and what was bad.
I was like, I don't know if I want to do that.
I have a band, I really am a musician.
I don't know if I want to make a movie
about people criticizing music.
Eventually I realized
I'd be an idiot to turn down this role.
It's a great character and I took the plunge,
and had the time of my life.
The director Stephen Frears
is one of my all time favorites to work with.
I called him the Warlock
because he had these thick, juicy bushy eyebrows,
and he looked like he had magical powers, and he was grumpy,
and he would oftentimes lay on the ground
and just look at the sky and say,
I'm too old to be directing this movie.
But then he would get up,
and he'd give me like the perfect piece of direction.
A lot of that movie was just adrenaline for me.
I was just like, Don't blow it, Jack.
This is your big chance.
So I came out of the gate windmilling,
just acting as though my life depended on it.
The big finale of the movie, there's a concert,
and my character who's only criticized
music and musicians the whole movie
is finally up onstage and he has to actually perform.
There was a lot of talk about what song I was gonna sing,
and one of the writers D.V. DeVincentis
wanted me to sing that Marvin Gaye song and I was like,
Why would I do that song?
I mean, that song's a good song and everything,
but I'd rather do like,
a bigger more iconic song like, Lets Get It On.
And Cusack and DeVincentis were like, Let's Get It On?
Dude, that's a big song, all right.
If you think you can handle it.
I was like, I think I can handle it. [laughs]
Then it came time to sing it and do the scene,
and I did it and the first take I was a little trepidatious.
I was a little, I was tiptoeing a little bit.
I was a little cautious, and it definitely sucked,
and I'll never forget,
Stephen Frears the director said, Cut!
And he got angry at everyone on the set except for me.
He didn't say anything to me.
Extras, this is the finale of the film!
Everyone on your feet, ha!
Cheering, excitement, everyone!
Jack, great job, let's do it again.
And I was like, Oh, man.
I know he's yelling at everyone else,
but I think he meant to be yelling at me,
but he didn't yell at me.
Whatever it was, it gave me this crazy adrenaline goose,
and I came out in the second take swinging,
and that's the one that they used in the movie.
♪ And if you feel like I feel, sugar ♪
♪ Come on ♪
♪ Let's get it on ♪
[audience cheering]
Shallow Hal.
After High Fidelity, I didn't have to like,
send my headshot and resume around anymore.
I started getting offers.
One of the big offers I got was Shallow Hal.
To work with the legendary Farrelly brothers,
who were coming off an unprecedented string of successes.
You know, they had huge comedic blockbuster movies.
Dumb and Dumber, all that stuff
with Jim Carrey and with Ben Stiller.
They had that huge hit, Something About Mary.
So, when they came a-knocking, I said yes,
and yeah, found out that Gwyneth Paltrow
was gonna be playing opposite me.
So I was stoked 'cause I was a huge fan of hers.
Not only as an Academy Award winning actress,
but also I knew that she was funny as hell.
I saw her on SNL just crushing it,
and I was like, she's a real character actor.
She's not just like, a leading lady romantic interest.
She's also like, a straight up badass
when it comes to inhabiting different characters.
She really got inside that one literally and figuratively,
like emotionally what it was like to be that person,
and also she was inside of a suit
that was like, three times her size.
Are you sure that's what you want to do?
Cuckoo, cuckoo.
♪ If you never explain your heart ♪
♪ And the touch of my lips ♪
[crowd cheering]
The cuckoo clock was mine.
That was my own little spin on it.
My little improvisation.
Jason Alexander's in the movie as well,
and he's on the Mount Rushmore
of television comedies because of Seinfeld.
One of the great blustering buffoons of television history,
and it was awesome to get a chance
to go toe to toe with a legend.
What are you doing?
I am rescuing you!
From what?
From what?
It was cool just hanging with him on the set.
He had a lot of cool stories,
but you know what was cool about the Farrelly brothers,
is it was a really funny script and a funny story,
but it had a lot of emotional underpinnings too, you know?
It was about how we judge people by the way they look,
and we don't really go beyond
just their physical appearance.
It had some cool resonance in that way,
and I think that's why it stuck around for all these years.
People still compliment me
on that movie and I think that's why.
It struck a chord.
[upbeat rock music]
Orange County.
So I did this movie Orange County,
which among other things,
was the first time I worked with Jake Kasdan,
incredible director of Jumanji: The Next Level,
and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
And I had such a blast working on that character.
He's kind of a Jeff Spicoli.
[groaning]
Watch it, man!
He's a stoner and he's kind of a [beep] up.
Big brother to Colin Hanks' character,
but it was a real blast to play,
because he's just sort of living life
by the seat of his pants, you know?
Just following his nose,
and he's kind of a train wreck of a human being,
but he's also kinda lovable.
It was a great character for me.
[shouting]
[gasping]
Do you want me to call Public Safety?
Do you want me to get naked and start the revolution?
[playful music]
[laughs]
I had a lot of fun with it, and in that movie,
I got to party with Colin Hanks, who is great.
We had a great chemistry.
What?
Yes, the cops are right on my ass.
Now listen, I've been thinking about it.
We are going to Mexico, buddy, right now!
Oh, Lance. Please!
[police siren pulses]
I got to work with Ben Stiller in a rad scene.
What's your name?
Uh, Joe, John. What is it?
Uh, Joe John.
Your name's Joe John?
Johnston, Johnston, Joe.
Yeah, everybody in the cast
and Jake were just incredible to work with.
I'm very proud of that movie.
[Producer] You're from Southern California, right?
Did you channel any people that you knew
to bring that character to life?
I mean, it was just sort of an amalgamation
of all the stoners that I knew growing up in Hermosa Beach,
but no, no one in particular.
Maybe weirdly, closest to myself
of all the characters I've ever played.
School of Rock.
So, I did Orange County, right?
And Mike White wrote Orange County,
and Scott Rudin produced Orange County.
So Scott hatched this plan
to give me the lead role in a movie,
and he was talking with Mike White about it like,
What can we do 'cause Jack's so funny in Orange County?
What can we do that would really
feature him as the central character?
And Mike had this idea and he was like,
I think he should be teaching kids how to rock.
And Scott Rudin said, Go, write it.
And Mike just told me, Hey, I've been hired
to write a script for you,
and what do you think about this concept?
I was like, Yes, do it, go.
And he wrote this script and I didn't tell him any,
I didn't give him any guidance or anything.
I really didn't develop it at all.
I just read his first draft, which was dynamite.
It was hilarious.
Scott Rudin, the producer said,
I want you guys to meet this director Richard Linklater.
I was like, I love Richard Linklater.
I saw his film, Slackers.
Which was this incredible bohemian movie about artists,
and eccentrics in Austin, Texas, and I was like,
but that's such like an art film.
I don't know if he's really the right director
to direct a big, you know, studio comedy.
But then we met him and I was like, Oh, I get it.
And that's kind of the genius of Scott Rudin
knowing who to put together to make magic happen,
because Linklater was taking it seriously,
and taking it to another level of like, believability.
He wanted everything to be rooted in reality,
and to believe that these characters are real,
and these kids are real,
and that this crazy scenario could've happened in real life.
That's the combination that made it special,
and so he and Mike worked together on another draft.
They worked out the beats and we rehearsed it a lot.
Richard is a theater guy at his core.
That's his roots and me too,
so I was super comfortable with that,
workshop and scenes with the kids, and finding new beats.
Like that scene where we're all going around the classroom
and I'm assigning people their jobs,
and their musical instruments,
and we basically write a song in the room
in one scene without cutting,
that was all workshop through rehearsal, you know?
And added into the script.
Oh, that's it.
Okay, keep going with that.
Zack, do you remember this thing I taught you a minute ago?
It goes like.
[slow guitar music]
Yes!
And a lot of the movie had that rad,
like malleable development feel to it.
It's definitely like, the movie I'm most proud of.
That's the one that really felt like all the planets aligned
and when we did that first readthrough with the whole cast,
it was just like, oh, it was just lightning in a bottle.
That's the only time I felt that I was like,
meant to do something.
And now the rest is all just gravy,
and honestly, I can die happy.
I've got my School of Rock.
[Producer] Did you pick
a lot of the music that was used in the film?
Yeah, everyone had their two cents,
but I would say that Linklater had real strong opinions
about certain jams, yeah.
He wanted that Zeppelin song really badly,
and he's the one that said,
Hey, I tried to get the Zeppelin music in
Dazed and Confused,
a movie that he directed before School of Rock,
and they said no.
Would you do me a favor and just make a video plea,
just beg them to use The Immigrant Song
that we ended up using that viking.
[sings]
And so I did, I begged them on video
with a huge audience of extras
in the movie theater that we were shooting in,
and they all chanted with me.
Led Zeppelin, please bless us with your love!
I don't remember what I said,
it was ridiculous and off the top of my head,
and he sent it over there to them to England,
and it worked.
They were like, Oh, that's funny.
That's funny, mate.
Yeah, we'll let him use the song.
That's not a very good imitation of Jimmy Page but,
and it's a great thing
'cause it's one of the best parts of the movie, that song.
[sings]
♪ We come from the land of the ice and snow ♪
♪ From the midnight sun, where the hot springs blow ♪
♪ Hammer of the gods ♪
Summer, you get an A+ and 50 gold stars!
I didn't do it for the grade.
Give me some of that.
Yeah, yeah! [cheers]
♪ Valhalla I am coming ♪
I was involved in a lot of the music.
Any music that I sang that was like, original music,
I wrote or had a hand in writing.
[Producer] So, the final song
that you perform at the Battle of the Bands?
That song is actually a band called Mooney Suzuki,
and that was the song I was having real trouble writing.
I was trying to crack the code and I was like,
there's too much pressure.
It's the big finale song, the end of the movie,
and I wrote a bunch of different drafts,
and none of it was working and then it was a Saturday night,
and I went to see the Strokes.
The band that opened was called the Mooney Suzuki,
and they were so funny and hard rockin'.
I was like, God, I wish I could write a song like that.
That would be perfect for end of the movie.
I went backstage after the show and I said,
You guys, I loved your set.
I'm doing this movie called School of Rock.
Would you wan to take a crack at writing the finale song?
I've got some lyrics here that Mike White wrote.
And they were like,
Yeah man, I want to take a look at this.
Oh, I'll give it a crack.
I'll give you a text if I come up with something.
I was like, All right, good luck.
And I didn't have high hopes.
The next day I get the text with a rough of the song,
and it just killed it, crushed,
and I was so excited 'cause I was like,
We have the end of our movie!
I think I might've cried a little bit.
♪ Oh yeah ♪
[upbeat guitar music]
That just goes to show, like the stress,
and the last minute scrambling
that can go into making a movie,
because we were already making the movie at that point.
We didn't have the ending song.
So, it's crazy the kind of turmoil
that you can put yourself through
in making these kind of, some movies,
but thank God we got it.
Thank you Mooney Suzuki.
[upbeat rock music]
King Kong.
So coming off of School of Rock,
I was just like riding high on a cloud.
I was like, things couldn't be better.
I just had a home run of a movie that I'm super proud of,
and everybody seemed to love it.
When my agent was like, What do you want to do now?
What kind of movie do you want to make?
I was like, I don't know.
She's like, Who do you want to work with?
And I was like, Well, I just saw
the Lord of the Rings trilogy
and God, those movies are so good.
If I could ever be in a Peter Jackson film,
but I know that's never gonna happen.
And then like, the next day,
I get a call from my agent saying,
Dude, Peter Jackson wants you to be in King Kong.
I was like, What?
No, really?
And she said, Yeah, you gotta go meet him.
I was like, Well, I'm gonna mess it up.
I'm gonna go meet him, I'm gonna blow it.
I'm gonna say the wrong thing.
And I went and met him,
and they didn't want me to audition or anything.
It was he and his wife and their writing partner,
and they just wanted to show me like,
an animated sort of version of the end of the movie
when King Kong is up on top of the Empire State Building
fighting off the airplanes, the bi-wing planes,
and it was just a beautiful sequence.
[King Kong roaring]
I got chills watching it and they said,
So, do you want to be in our movie?
And I was like, Yes, yes I do!
So then we go off to New Zealand, and it's a long shoot.
We're there for like six months,
which is twice as long as a normal movie
because it's just huge and sprawling and I was in heaven.
I loved being in New Zealand.
Wellington, New Zealand, beautiful country.
Going to work every day was just like,
I didn't want it to end.
Like when we got to the end of the shoot,
I'm not ashamed to say I shed a couple man tears,
because I just wanted to live there
and never stop making King Kongs.
[groaning]
Get off!
[grunting]
So the huge scene where I'm fighting off
all those prehistoric insects
and disgusting flesh-eating bugs.
[groaning]
Usually when you do a big special effects scene like that,
they say, very precisely, Walk three steps,
and then swat at this tennis ball,
and then look up 'cause another thing's coming.
But this time Peter Jackson was like, Forget all of that.
Just walk into this set.
And it looks like a disgusting,
prehistoric, oozing landscape.
And just pretend like there's literally thousands
of man-eating bugs coming at you from every direction,
and just go off, just be swatting around for your life.
And we'll just add all the special effects later.
I was like, Wow, okay.
It was such freedom.
I didn't have to worry about blocking,
I just could let my imagination run wild,
and that's basically what that scene is.
We're all just like, swatting at monsters in our,
from our subconscious mind.
[groaning]
[insects splattering]
It was really fun to shoot, and incredible cardio.
I'm gonna start a new exercise class called,
Killing Man-Eating Bugs.
[upbeat rock music]
Nacho Libre.
So Nacho Libre, was an incredible opportunity
to work with an amazing filmmaker, Jared Hess.
I was such a huge fan of Napoleon Dynamite,
and I got the call that he wanted to collaborate.
I said, Okay, meet me at the top of the parking lot
over at the ArcLight Theater.
So we met there, it was a weird place to meet.
[producers laugh]
I don't know why I wanted to meet there.
There's a nice view of the city.
I thought it would be a good place
for an epic power meeting,
looking at the view of the Los Angeleno skyline.
And he told me the idea of this guy that had two lives.
One life that was just for the Lord,
and this other secret life that he has where he just,
he loves wrestling.
[man speaking in foreign language]
But they can't coexist, you know?
A man of the Lord cannot live a life of violence.
So he's torn, his soul is torn,
and the way that he described the world
was so funny and rich.
I was worried though.
I was like, Dude, he's a Mexican character.
I don't know if I should play that character.
He told me that he had a plan for that
was that my father was Swedish and my mother was Mexican,
and they, I was born in Mexico and I grew up there,
but that's why I'm a gringo.
I wouldn't have to, you know,
do any of the things that would be considered spicy.
So, we dove in headfirst and just had a ball.
It was such a beautiful location.
We filmed all in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Hey, listen to me!
Hey, mucho take it easy.
I need your help.
[shouting]
Oh!
[muttering in foreign language]
Listen to me!
Today, I have the chance of a lifetime,
but first I need a man.
Get off me!
[shouting]
So, me and Hector start off as enemies,
and over the course of the film, we become best friends.
Also we have philosophical differences.
I am a man of the Lord and I believe in God and faith,
and he's a man of science.
He only believes in science,
but somehow we still work together to become
one of the great wrestling tag teams of all time.
I don't want to get big to lose.
I want to win!
I do get a lot of people saying,
Get that corn outta my face!
Get that corn outta my face!
Chancho, let me borrow some sweats.
That's another good one,
and a lot of that is just imitating Jared Hess.
The director has an incredible talent at doing voices
and character work himself,
and I always told him,
Dude, you've gotta be the star of a movie.
You're so funny.
And he has no interest in that.
He doesn't want to get up in front of the camera,
but it's one of the things
that makes him such a great director.
Even they say you're never supposed to do it,
but he gives the best line readings.
Sometimes I would even say,
Let me hear how you would say it.
And he would say it,
and I would just bust a gut laughing so hard.
He made it really easy.
I recommend working with Jared
if you want a really hilarious performance,
and I really worked my ass off learning how to wrestle.
It wasn't without injuries.
I at one point sustained a bad gash on my eye
diving out of the ring,
and I hit my head on some of those folding chairs,
and I had to be rushed to the hospital.
The producer said, Hey, he's an actor.
He's gotta be able to use his face.
Let's not just get a surgeon.
Let's get the best plastic surgeon
in Mexico over here as soon as possible.
And this incredible plastic surgeon came to the hospital,
and she was dressed in a full ballgown.
She had come straight from,
like a fancy event where she was in a ballgown,
and she did the surgery on my eye.
As you can see, she did incredible work.
You can barely see it.
You can't see it really at all.
Yeah, thank you, wherever you are, incredible surgeon.
[upbeat rock music]
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.
Well, you know, my whole career
kind of got jump started by Tenacious D,
because that's how I got High Fidelity,
my big breakthrough role.
And I always got a special satisfaction
out of doing Tenacious D because it was the one job
that I had where I was the writer, director,
you know, auteur of the project,
and you got a special source of pride with that,
because you're not just a puppet in someone else's game.
Even though all movies are a little collaborative,
and you get to put your two cents in,
Tenacious D was my baby, you know?
So, even while my career was taking off,
and I was getting all these big Hollywood movie roles,
I always kept the burner going for Tenacious D,
and in between movies,
working with Kyle on new material and new songs.
We realized that we were at a crossroads.
It was time to take it to the next level.
[singing]
We had already done a TV series,
a little limited HBO series.
We did our big album,
and it was time to make Tenacious D, the movie.
We worked really hard on writing that story,
and we're like, Hey, what should it?
It should be like another
weird adventure of Tenacious D, or what?
And we realized, no,
it had to be the origin story of Tenacious D.
Where did we come from?
It had to be the true story of exactly the way it went down,
with some extra details to make it more exciting.
Like we never actually met Satan at a crossroads,
but we had to put that in there
to make it get a little extra rocket sauce.
[both screaming]
[both singing]
Yeah, it was magical.
We got everyone we wanted.
I wanted Meatloaf to play my dad.
We wanted Ronnie James Dio
to be in there to be my inspiration.
We got Tim Robbins to play the creepy stranger.
Everybody that we asked said yes,
and we made the exact movie we wanted to make.
We made a kick ass theme song,
music video to promote the movie.
We went on SNL, we did everything you could do,
and then the movie came out and nobody went to see it,
and we were devastated.
But we were still proud of the movie, you know?
And over the years, it's been like, what has it been?
Like 12 years now, 13 years.
People still come up to us
and tell us how much they loved the movie,
and when we play concerts
all around the world to thousands of people,
they all know every word
of the songs from The Pick of Destiny.
So it really has sort of built
a cult following over the years.
Just because something doesn't get 100% on Rotten Tomatoes,
and zero people go to see your movie,
doesn't mean that it has to be the end of the story.
If you love the work, that's all that really matters,
because it can find an audience further down the road.
[upbeat rock music]
The Holiday.
So I had done Nacho, the Pick of Destiny, King Kong,
and then I got this offer for this movie
that has a lot different in tone.
It was like, softer.
It was sweeter.
It was a romantic comedy, but it was really well written,
and I was like, Oh, you know what?
My mom is gonna love this one.
And it was also an opportunity to work with Cate Blanchett.
No sorry, hold on a second.
[murmurs]
And it was also an opportunity to work with Kate Winslet.
The great, not to be confused with any other Kate, Winslet.
And I was like, wait a second.
This isn't really gonna happen.
Kate Winslet's not gonna do a movie with me.
She's gonna go from Leonardo DiCap to Jackety McBlackety?
Yes, she was. [laughs loudly]
Hey, I got you the best drink in town,
but I didn't know if you liked
a little dollop of whipped cream or a big dollop,
so I got both and you can each one.
Whoa, hello big dollop.
[Iris laughs]
Say, you look great by the way.
[Iris] Thanks.
Really great.
Thanks, I'm feeling good.
I've been working out with Arthur.
[Miles laughs]
What?
No, I'm sure it's an awesome workout.
I'm sorry, I'm trying not to picture it.
Okay, well the workout's not that great but the--
[Miles laughs]
Stop laughing!
I was the big winner there,
'cause just getting to be in a movie with her,
and cameras were rolling and I'm looking across
at one of the best actors living,
and in her eyes are the reality of the character.
She's just like, a pro on another level,
so I learned a lot
just from doing scenes with her, and watching her,
and how committed she was and how real she was.
I mean, that's not really something you can learn.
You can't learn to be charismatic like that.
You gotta be born with it,
but just her level of commitment was infectious,
and I felt like I picked up a lot of that energy, you know?
[upbeat rock music]
Tropic Thunder.
So Tropic Thunder was a rad project
that dropped in my lap.
Ben Stiller was gonna do this big epic comedy out in Hawaii.
It sounded like paradise.
Show me where the drugs are!
Don't judge me!
The cast was intense.
You got Danny McBride,
but this is before Eastbound & Down,
so people didn't really know
what an incredible firecracker of an artist he was yet.
Just say no to this you drug making midget.
And you got Robert Downey Jr.,
but this is before Iron Man.
This after his like, scandal,
and it was like his career was over.
So he was on the comeback trail at that point.
People didn't know he was about to explode
and be the biggest superhero movie star in the world.
There's a lot of people that were like,
getting ready to pop in that movie.
You could feel it on the set.
There was a lot of electric energy.
The movie itself was groundbreaking
in that it was super dark and funny, and real like,
cinematography was Academy Award winning level.
There's a lot of things you had not seen before in a comedy,
and it was hard.
Comedies are supposed to be super easy,
but dude, the locations were remote.
You say, Oh, you're filming in Hawaii?
Oh, that must be really chill.
That's probably paradise.
But every day, dude, we had to get in a weird Jeep,
and drive over hill and dale,
like really intense landscapes with mud spraying,
[groaning]
for like an hour and a half to two hours every morning.
You get out there and then get into your costume and makeup,
and work, and we were like, slogging. [laughs]
Screaming bloody murder, hiking up mountains,
and doing really intense scenes, but in the end,
at the end of the day it was worth it
'cause it was funny as hell and really original.
But the scenes that I remember the most
are the ones where I felt like I was actually gonna die.
I was on the back of a gigantic water buffalo at one point.
[speaking in foreign language]
Laz, don't let him take me off the yak.
[shouting]
It was carrying me around a mountain pass.
We were on like, our 13th take
and I didn't blame the water buffalo because I'm heavy,
and it didn't want me on its back,
and it just started bucking.
It was like, I want you off my back right now!
And it started bucking bronco, and I was like, Oh!
And they were like, Cut, cut!
I was like, I can't stop him, ah!
And like he [beep] blew.
I went flying, flip, ass over tea kettle.
Somehow miraculously, landed between two big boulders.
[groans]
A little wind knocked out of me,
but no lacerations, no injury.
Miracle, I should've died,
and then Ben Stiller, Is everyone okay?
Can we take it from the top, guys?
I was like, [beep] you, we're not taking it from the top!
You get on the [beep] buffalo!
[sighs]
And I just walked off the set.
I thought justifiably,
I didn't think I was being a diva at all,
and then Ben realized,
Dude, I didn't know that you almost died.
I didn't know what happened, I didn't see it.
You weren't even on camera.
I was like, It wasn't even on [beep] camera?
[sighs]
'Cause when something like that happens,
you want to know that at least you got some rad footage.
No, they [beep] went off the road
and the cameraman was like,
No, this shot's not good over there.
I'll keep the camera here.
Those [beep] cinematographers,
and everyone who [beep] with their shot.
No!
Anyway, sore subject.
It turns out though that water buffalo was pregnant.
That's why it was freaking out.
No one knew 'cause she wasn't showing,
and the baby's fine.
And guess what they named it?
Jack Black.
[Producer] Nice.
So if you ever meet a big ass water buffalo
named Jack Black, you'll know what's up.
[upbeat rock music]
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
Yeah, I love Jumanji, the original Jumanji
with Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, and the rest.
♪ They're on Jumanji Isle ♪
Incredible movie.
Incredible performance by Robin Williams,
because he thrived in characters
and scenarios that were extreme
'cause he's such an extreme like,
100 miles a minute brain of a comedian.
It's like he's from another planet.
So he's playing Mork from Mork, it fits his personality,
because it's like, what are you?
How do you do this?
And in Jumanji that movie,
he's this guy coming out of the game.
He's been in the jungle for 20 years,
barely surviving, and he's insane.
It works because that's like, right in his lane,
because he's got some insanity to him, you know?
That's what makes him so exciting as a performer,
and that's why Jumanji the first one kicked so much ass,
is 'cause you got Robin Williams at the peak of his powers
in the perfect role for him, you know?
So we get an opportunity to revisit Jumanji.
It's a big title, big shoes to fill, but it's a great take.
The script is electric,
and what's really the best thing about it is reading it
knowing that you've got Dwayne The Rock Johnson,
and Kevin Hart in those roles.
It was like, those guys are gonna be hilarious.
I could just see it.
I heard their voices while I'm reading it.
You're telling me that you're Spencer?
I am Spencer, I'm Spencer.
[shrieks]
Yep, that's Spencer.
And they offered me the role
to be the most popular girl in school and I was like,
I know how to be the hot chick from high school.
I know for some reason, I know how to do it.
[gasps]
Oh my god, you guys!
There is, like, literally,
a penis attached to my body right now.
Martha, come look at my penis!
And it was just like, I hope I get this part.
I mean, I know I've been offered the part,
but it feels too good to be true.
Like the last minute that I got it,
I kept it, and we made it,
and just as I had anticipated.
Grand slam home run, it felt good.
It feels good to connect.
[Producer] Did you have a lot of fun
playing that hot chick character?
I don't know, I mean,
it's just, you know, like it comes natural.
The fact that I'm not
Instagramming this right now is insane!
Here's the thing about Jumanji though.
[Producer] Yeah?
Just think about Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,
and it was something that I realized
that we were bringing to the table is the first Jumanji
it's this little kid plays Jumanji the board game,
and gets sucked into the game.
You don't see him, cut to 20 years later,
he comes out of the game and he's like,
The jungle, I've been in the jungle!
But you never see what he saw for those 20 years,
but in our movie,
you're going into the game, going into the jungle.
[earth rumbling]
I think we, we got, like sucked into the game.
And I was pushing early on, I hate to toot my own horn,
but I basically named the movie,
because I was like, You guys, that's the difference.
This movie is, we're in the jungle.
It should be called, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
And one of the marketing dudes was like,
Huh, you know, Jack's got a point there.
Anyway, now I feel dirty for having taking credit
for the naming of movie, but it's true.
I named it.
[upbeat rock music]
Jumanji: The Next Level.
Jumanji: The Next Level is all about the new elements.
Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Kevin and Dwayne,
playing those new old characters is so perfect,
and it really is my favorite part of the movie
are these new elements because they kick so much ass.
Dwayne and Kevin are perfectly suited to those roles,
'cause they are bickering old farts, you know what I mean?
They fight each other all the time,
but they love each other, but they hate each other,
but they love each other, and it's perfect,
and I think that's what Jake and the writers were thinking.
They were like, how can we capitalize
on this insane relationship that they have,
and how can we use that and harness it, and yeah,
these bickering old dudes
that have this love for each other.
And of course, you know,
we have Awkwafina in there, and she's a dynamo.
She's incredibly funny, a talented character actress.
Those are the things I was most excited about.
The trio of new rocket sauce.
My part, I got to play a new character,
and I was scared about it, you know?
I was like, this is gonna be a real challenge,
I don't know if I can pull it off, and you know,
I had the same fears and concerns with Nacho Libre.
I was like, I don't know if I should play this part.
There's a spice in there if I get it wrong,
but I felt really good about my performance.
I felt like I really found the voice in the character,
and I was really proud at the end of the day,
and what I was able to come up with.
I'm excited for people to see it.
[upbeat rock music]
