The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the number one movie in the world, with an opening weekend haul of more than $377 million. But co-star Jack Black had already become number one at home — when he was cast as Bowser.
“I did get some dad points. It’s true,” Black told ABC Radio, adding of sons Sammy, 16, and 14-year-old Tommy, “The boys were impressed. They’re not easily impressed. But this one, they were like, ‘Nuh uh.’ I was like, ‘Yep.’ ‘Really?’ ‘Yeah,"” he recalled with a hearty laugh. “Oh, yeah. It was good. It was a good day at Casa de Black.”
It’s easy to imagine his role in the most recent episode of The Mandalorian had that same effect at home — but Jack wasn’t allowed to spoil that when he chatted with us.
Black explained his love of the Super Mario saga goes way back. “When I was a kid, I was there for the very first Nintendo video game. Little game. You might not have heard of it: Donkey Kong. It was Mario saving the Princess from the Donkey Kong. And it was incredible. I mean, I — I was obsessed with it. I was 12 and I played the hell out of it. I must have sunk thousands of quarters into the local machine.”
Complete with an imitation of the game’s sound effects, Black recalls, “I never conquered it. It was a tough game. You had to time those jumps of the barrels perfectly.”
He adds, “I have great, great, fond memories of Nintendo. … that was like the seed, the sprout of Nintendo. And to see it grow over the decades into a whole gigantic universe, that’s pretty impressive. Unprecedented in the world of video games.”
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