Jack Black reveals ‘SNL’ audition idea he never used

Jack Black never attempted to join the Saturday Night Live cast, but he had a concept for an audition that has stuck with him.

The Minecraft Movie star discussed SNL with Amy Poehler on her podcast Good Hang, explaining how he envisioned a hypothetical tryout for the show would have looked.

“I had an idea in mind that I never went and followed through with,” Black said. “I don’t wanna repeat it because now it really sounds stupid in my mind. But my audition was gonna be, basically I was gonna be a superhero that I created.”

Black thought that the character was a hybrid of two existing superheroes, but quickly realized it might have just been a direct copy of one iconic character. “I don’t remember what it was called, but it was like a combination of the Hulk and — maybe it was just the Hulk,” he said. “I was gonna come in as the Hulk and just jump around and do this weird slow motion kind of performance art dance where I would crush things with my foot and then do a mimed, the earth is cracking.”

The actor had no confidence in the concept. “I was not gonna get in, and I knew that, but I had practiced it in the mirror in my living room a few times,” he said. “But I never pulled the trigger.”

He continued: “That’s the constant battle, is the fear of failure. Sometimes you’re up for the battle, and sometimes you’re just like, ‘Uh, pass.’

Black also reflected on his recent experience hosting SNL for the first time since 2005. “It was very emotional, because I had such great memories of doing it all those years ago, decades before, and I didn’t think I would ever be asked back,” he recalled. “Not because I didn’t have a career, things are going great, but it felt like a part of a time where, I dunno, Lorne [Michaels] works in mysterious ways.”

The Nacho Libre star said that he didn’t think his current standing as an established A-lister in the entertainment industry fit SNL‘s M.O. “He’s got a feeling of what’s gonna work best for that show, and it feels like they like to get people that are on the cusp that are exploding, popping off in a certain way,” he said.

“You could’ve been a cast member,” Poehler told Black.

“No, I don’t think I could,” the Kung Fu Panda star responded. “I don’t think I could handle it week-in and week-out. Once every 20 years is more my speed for that gig.”

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Despite his hesitancy to pursue SNL early in his career, Black said that he ordinarily loves the process of auditioning, highlighting a successful meeting he had as a 13-year-old actor that secured him a role in an Atari commercial. 

“I remember leaving, and they were laughing, and I was like, ‘Ah, that is so heavenly, that feeling,'” he said. “And I’ve been chasing the dragon ever since, really. ‘Cause when you crush an audition, in a weird way, I like it better than doing the job.”

Black said that the immediacy of an audition often feels more satisfying to him than acting in an actual on-camera project. “The weird thing is, sometimes you’ll get the part, and you’re like, ‘Oh f—, now what?'” he explained. “And then you get to the set, and it’s like, ‘No, in the audition I did it this way,’ and they’re like, ‘Forget about the audition, Jack. So what we want you to do is this totally different thing.’ But then it’s a different pressure when you’re performing for the thing that a million people will see. The audition, it’s just for that room.”

Listen to the full conversation between Black and Poehler above.