As Smash Mouth once said, “the years start coming and they don’t stop coming,” and that’s evident in the fact that School of Rock turned 20 this year. The film released in September 2003, putting Jack Black “on the map,” as he’s said, as well as a slew of child stars like Miranda Cosgrove. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Black had nothing but glowing words for his experience working on School of Rock.
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When asked what comes to mind when he thinks about School of Rock, Black answered, “That was such a big moment for me. That movie put me on the map in a lot of ways.” He continued, “It remains my favorite experience in my career because it gave me a chance to do all the things that I do best with acting and with performing and writing music, and working with my favorite writer, Mike White, who did such an incredible job writing in my voice. It’s very rare and very special when that happens.”
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School of Rock is so quintessentially Jack Black, it seems as if he merely walked on set and acted as himself. Some actors transform themselves for a role, but Black simply amplifies his already larger-than-life personality and channels it into his work. It’s a rare gift when someone can just be themselves and make one of the most formative films of an entire generation.
Black continued, “[A]nd working with Richard Linklater, the director, all the planets aligned on that one, and I’ve always felt like that’s the one that’s going to be on my tombstone, and I’m fine with that: the guy from School of Rock.”
At 20, School of Rock still stands as a paragon of film, especially for everyone who was a fifth-grader in 2003. It inspired a generation of musicians who maybe didn’t have access to good music or instruments, the same way the kids in the film didn’t. We all needed a Mr. Schneebly to inspire us and teach us about music, and Jack Black took that as a challenge and delivered timeless results.
Featured Image by Kayla Oaddams/WireImage
