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Oh For The Love Of ..... Jack Black, No!
"I'll be the new Hamlet," says Jack Black.
I'm going to assume that he's joking, given the context of the story. His Gulliver's Travels comes out soon (now?) and apparently there's a line in there where he calls himself Shakespeare (at least, that's what my kids keep telling me). So I'm sure that came up during an interview and hence the above quote.
Although it does make me think of a question. Who among modern actors could play the great comedies? What actor working today would we like to see as Feste, Jaques, or Bottom? I deliberately leave Falstaff out of the list, because I think he's a category all to himself.
1 comment:
I am not a fan of the comedies. I do not find them overtly funny in most cases.
But, in an effort to answer your question, and hopefully contribute to a brainstorm from several people, I will take a small shot at it.
I don't know what his training is, but I can see Nathan Lane as any number of the comic roles. He in fact did attempt to be so in Brannaugh's Love's Labor's Lost, and met with only slight success. But that is a terrible play to begin with. There are far stronger comedies in the Cannon.
I think you can't have someone who is over the top obnoxious in real life. (Or at least in interviews) because the whole time, no matter how good the performance, audience would just be thinking of the persona of the actor, and not the character. Worse, they may be laughing at the fact that the actor is present, and not at the presentation of the source material.
Jim Carrey comes to mind. For all I know there could be a fantastic Shakespearean within him, but his presence in any of the comic roles would not work. Too much of a temptation for him to do the "Jim Carrey" thing.
Not that Lane is particularly charming off screen. But more down to earth than your Carrey's or your Robin Williams'.
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