Jack Black On The Pain Of Body Waxing
Get ready to see actor Jack Black like you've never seen him before.
He plays the title character in the new big screen comedy "Nacho Libre." It's about a pious friar by day who becomes a masked fighter at night in the Mexican wrestling tradition known as "Lucha Libre."
The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen sat down with Black to talk about the off-beat comedy and the unusual character he portrays.
Who is the true Ignacio?
"Well, you know, Ignacio is a, is a complicated character," says Black. "He loves the Lord. But he also loves the Lucha Libre!"
"What about the accent?" Chen asks. "I don't know if this is true, but I thought I read you drew inspiration from a certain 'Wrath of Khan' character."
"Oh that. Well, uh, not the whole thing," Black replies. "Only once in a while if it got really heavy and it was time to whisper," he added, sounding like actor Ricardo Montalban.
"Revenge is a dish best served cold. And it is very cold in outer space," he joked, imitating the accent of Montalban.
"Did it just come from suddenly out your mouth as you're doing your lines?" Check asks. "Or did you have the intention of 'Yeah, this requires just a little pinch of Ricardo'?"
"Oh, I don't know if there was any time when I really, consciously said 'OK, full-on Montalban.' No, that's not true. There were a couple, there were a couple. When I'm like, 'We have to show him we're ready for the big leagues.' There's a little bit of a head nod that goes with The Montalban!" Black jokes.
Nacho is a very smooth character — in more ways than one. To prepare for the role, Jack Black had to get a body wax, which he admits was painful.
"Only in certain spots it got real bad. It was painful. I mean, the thing, it was the cumulative effect of like an hour and a half of, ugh. Yeah. If it was just one big one, I was hoping that it would just be wax, wax, wax, wax, wax, wax, wax, wax, wax, wax, wax," he says, gesturing from top of his chest to the groin. "And then up and around, under carriage, wax, wax, wax, wax. And then all the, ugh, in one good rip!" he jokes.
Black and his wife, Tanya, don't spend a lot of time in the Hollywood spotlight but all that might change. Chen spoke with Black the day before his first child, a son, was born.
"Now that we have all seen the birth of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's baby …now the world's attention can focus on your baby, any minute?" Chen asks.
"Yeah, you know, they totally stole our thunder," he jokes. "We totally said we're going to have a baby, and then Jolie was like, 'What? What did he just say? Jack just said they're going to have a baby. I'm going to have a baby. Let's do it right now, Brad, before they have theirs.' Totally scooped us."
Asked if he was prepared for fatherhood, Black says: "I am prepared. I feel like I'm prepared. I know once it happens I'm going to be like, 'Oh. I'm not prepared.' But for now I feel prepared. I'm like, whatever. And I got all the stuff. I bought all the things. The vibrating swings, the this and the that. What, and I know, I, read the thing, what we're supposed to do. When he cries, swaddle him up and give him a drink, give him some lovins! I'm ready!"
"Nacho Libre" opens nationwide on Friday.