{"id":452689,"date":"2025-09-26T11:31:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T11:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/452689\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T11:31:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T11:31:14","slug":"the-iconic-role-jack-black-almost-turned-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/452689\/","title":{"rendered":"The iconic role Jack Black almost turned down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jack<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n

Thu 25 September 2025 19:45, UK <\/p>\n

Apparently, when you get abandoned on the desert island, made famous by Desert Island Discs, you get to take eight songs and a book<\/a> with you. The former is a choice of crippling deliberation for me and one that would never truly provoke an answer, but the second, well, that is easy. I will always take High Fidelity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Nick Hornby book spoke to a generation of emotionally awkward men, soon followed by mine and will undoubtedly be eulogised by incoming soft boys for years to come. Those who pity themselves to the soundtrack of great women and refuse to diagnose their ill-fitting plaid shirt as the reason why they\u2019re so undesirable to any romantic interests. <\/p>\n

It remains one of the great music books of all time, as well as one of the few examples where a film adaptation<\/a> has managed to drastically change its setting yet still deliver a product brimming with, wait for it, fidelity. I am, of course, talking about the 2000 adaptation, starring John Cusack in the lead role. Not the more recent television series that stars Zo\u00eb Kravitz as the nonchalantly cool and effortlessly charming lead, thus entirely missing the point of the story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the film, however, was brilliant and despite Americanising the original plotline, felt truthful to the bumbling awkwardness of the book. But moreover, it did service to the music that the book seemed so focused on. The quirky character traits of Rob are crystallised through his playlist, and you can tell Hornby carefully curated that storyline thread. So when it came to the film adaptation, it was crucial that this was mirrored. Your average actor couldn\u2019t go on a four-week musical crash course and be expected to fit into the world of Championship Vinyl. No, it had to be an inherent part of their personality. Enter, Jack Black.<\/a><\/p>\n

Taking on the role of Rob Gordon\u2019s annoying and equally as neurotic sidekick Barry Judd, Black nailed the profile of a music-obsessed maniac, devoid of any social ability. Moreover, Black\u2019s irreverence was perfect for one of the film\u2019s crowning moments: Judd\u2019s performance of Marvin Gaye\u2019s sensual hit \u2018Let\u2019s Get It On\u2019.<\/a> It was also rumoured that Black overruled the script\u2019s original choice of \u2018Got To Give Up\u2019 and instead opted for the better-known hit and, in doing so, created a scene that will forever live in the history of cinema. <\/p>\n

But had Black trusted his initial instinct, the scene would have never been shot at all. Upon hearing about the project to adapt High Fidelity, Black had reservations. <\/p>\n

He explained, \u201cMy friend, John Cusack, was like, \u2018You would be perfect for this role, Barry, in High Fidelity\u2018. I was hesitant because I was like, I don\u2019t know if I want to make a movie about rock and roll, and someone who is a critic of rock and roll. I think it might hurt my rock and roll career, So at first I passed, and my agent said, \u2018Are you fucking kidding me? Are you insane?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure, agents get lambasted for the hefty percentage they demand, but in this instance, they were worth their weight in gold. Providing Black with one of his greatest career moments and fans with a scene to forever cherish.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still) Thu 25 September 2025 19:45, UK Apparently, when you get abandoned on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,152166,1616,152167,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-452689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-high-fidelity","10":"tag-jack-black","11":"tag-john-cusack","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115270378672632620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}