No one would argue that Jack Black is an actor so comfortably in his bag that he should have few regrets. Well, it turns out that sentiment couldn’t be farther from the truth because the funnyman actor recently revealed that he was once offered the role to star in The Incredibles, and what’s more, he got a big head about it and wound up turning it down.
In an interview with Capital FM promoting his self-aware reboot/legacy sequel Anaconda, co-star Paul Rudd revealed that he initially intended to play The Incredibles‘ villain Syndrome, but Jason Lee (of My Name Is Earl fame) ultimately got the job. Although the Super Mario Bros. and Kung Fu Panda star initially held reservations about revealing this little bit of trivia, mostly for fear of making Lee feel like shit 12 years after the fact for being the runner-up for the role, Black’s revelation also came with the tidbit that it was his own ignorance and shoving his weight around in the writer’s room that led to the role in one of his favorite movies of all time slipping between his fingers.
“I said no because I was like, ‘Uh, Brad Bird? Never heard of him! This character that you’re offering me is like a villain, but he’s kinda one-dimensional. I’m interested, but I’d like to see a rewrite. Will you add some dimensions to this character,” Black recounted telling Bird. “And he was like, ‘Yeah, you’re done.'”
Hearing all this now comes as a huge no-brainer on Bird’s part to offer Black the role, given that Syndrome’s larger-than-life, swarthy persona matches the acting chops we’ve come to love, if not appreciate, in Black’s filmography. Looking back on Black’s instance of telling the director of The Iron Giant to rewrite the script for The Incredibles—a film that went on to win an Oscar for best animated feature the following year—to match his ethos, it now serves as a lesson in humility for the actor.
“I learned a valuable lesson because when that movie came out, it was one of the best movies ever made. I was like, ‘Why was I being so difficult?'” Black said.
Mayhaps Black airing out his past misgivings and regret for not accepting The Incredibles role will manifest with a revolving door of opportunity and redemption, seeing as how The Incredibles 3 is in the works, and Bird won’t be involved this time around. That would certainly be an apt adjective should that come to pass.
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Source: Gizmodo