Film News: Jack Black on childhood, magic and Cate Blanchett

Michael Idato of The Sydney Morning Herald interviews actor Jack Black about his childhood, his love of science fiction, and more:

In his latest film, an adaptation of the book The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs, Black plays the mediocre warlock Jonathan Barnavelt, who adopts his orphaned nephew Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro). The third part of this unusual family is Barnavelt's neighbour and friend, the witch Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett).

"Dynamite script," Black says when asked why he took the role. "I love magic. I love magical powers. Specifically, like wizards and witches and warlocks. Nothing about superpowers like superheroes of Marvel. I like those, too. But, more specifically J.R.R. Tolkien magic. Wizards.

"I did a song on a Dave Grohl heavy metal album, it's a secret track on the end of it, it's called Probot, and there's a song called I Am the Warlock that I wrote with him," Black says. "So it seemed like it was meant to be when I read this script. I was like, holy shit. I'm gonna get to play a warlock. And also it didn't hurt that Cate Blanchett was on board."