When Jack Black filmed Minecraft in New Zealand, he listened to Billy Joel songs to get into the role of Steve, an expert crafter who leads the fantasy world Overworld made popular by the popular video game.
“I loved listening to Billy Joel while we were making that movie,” Black told Postmedia earlier this year before launching into his own version of Movin' Out (Anthony's Song). “He wrote some classic tunes.”
But when he decided to suit up alongside Paul Rudd, Steve Zahn and Thandiwe Newton for the comedic reboot of Anaconda — the 1997 snake-oil horror film that originally starred Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Ice Cube, Jon Voight and Eric Stoltz — Black needed something a little more challenging.
“I had a great racer named Phil, @rocknroll_phil on Instagram, and he was a real rocker,” Black says in a recent video interview from Los Angeles. “So there was a lot of classic rock. Led Zeppelin played every Tuesday.”
“I rode with rock 'n' roll Phil and he played a little AC/DC… For those about to rock (we salute you),” interjects Rudd.
Black calls Back in Black a hit-filled album from the Australian rock band that could easily fill a trip to and from a movie set. “But if you're a true AC/DC fan, you belong to the old school Bon Scott era. My favorite is Walk All Over You.” Black then pauses before performing the chorus to the 1979 rock classic that appeared on the band's sixth studio album, Highway to Hell.
“You get me started and then I can’t stop,” he says, laughing. “Angus Young is a genius…He came up with more riffs than anyone else…still in his school suit.”
At Christmas, Anaconda follows his longtime friends Doug (Black) and Griff (Rudd) as they join forces with two other childhood friends, Kenny (Zahn) and Claire (Newton), to fulfill their dream of remaking their favorite movie, Anaconda.
After crossing paths in the 1990s, Black and Rudd appeared in the 2004 film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and shared a brief scene together in the 2007 rock pseudo-film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Anaconda, co-written and directed by Tom Gormican (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent), is their first full-length team-up. “I’ve always been a fan of Jack,” says Rudd.
“I've been a fan of Paul since the beginning of time. Since before we were born,” Black adds, trying to outdo his co-star. But he says their cameos in Walk Hard – Black as Paul McCartney and Rudd as John Lennon – left him hopeful they would work together again.
“I knew we would get along,” Black says. “What I've always admired about you, Paul, is that you work in huge comedies and big studio films that are really fun, but underneath it all you always have the spirit of an independent filmmaker… You love the art of comedy.”
Black went viral earlier this year when he shouted “Chicken Jockey!” in the middle of Minecraft, when Jason Momoa's Garrett (Scavenger) Harrison fights a zombie riding a chicken inside a square circle.
He'll likely find himself at the center of similar online fame when audiences watch Anaconda, which features a scene in which Doug Black is bitten by a spider and needs one of his friends to urinate on him.
“Come on me!” Doug screams cheerfully as he waits for one of his friends to urinate on his venomous bite.
Black didn't expect that “Chicken Jockey!” become like this. Is he ready to end the year with moviegoers shouting “Come on!” in the middle of Anaconda?
“Look: 'Chicken Jockey!' there was a moment,” he says. “It was something special, it was a tribute to Burgess Meredith in the movie Rocky. But 'Come on!' it's so intimate and it's so wrong. It's so funny that we think that's what's going to save me from a spider bite… Scientifically, we know it's true. Urine is the only real antidote in the jungle to a spider bite. So it was a pretty funny line.”
