Jack Black on ‘Peaches’ (‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’) sending him to the Oscars: ‘Talk about stage fright!’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Matt Noble
·4 min read
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“It was cool to bust out a jam,” declares Jack Black about his hit song ‘Peaches’ from “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” In our recent webchat he adds, “I am aware of how powerful music can be in a movie. I’m no stranger to that tool. ‘School or Rock’ and all my best movies have some kind of musical element in them. If you kick out the jams hard enough you can make a classic.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

‘Peaches’ is a love ballad performed and co-written by Black. In the song, the evil Bowser (played by Black) imagines a life of love with Princess Peach. The song adds an emotional layer to Mario’s antagonist. It is also really funny with the menacing figure sitting at a piano pining for Peaches. The song became a viral hit and broke into the US Billboard Hot 100 charts. The music video can be seen on the link below. Black explains, “The last thing you’d expect is for Bowser to sing this heartfelt love song, but I can’t take all the credit.”

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Black wrote with Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (the film’s directors), Eric Osmond (the film’s editor) and John Spiker. He admits, “When we were done with it, I didn’t know if they were going to use this song. It gets a little too real! You can hear the love in his voice. I sent it over and they loved it.’ It’s funny how things I don’t know are gonna work end up being the best stuff in a movie. People like it when you take risks and do weird stuff no one’s expecting.”

SEEAaron Horvath interview: ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ director

As well as his “School of Rock” role, Black created the rock-folk comedy group “Tenacious D” with Kyle Gass in 1994. The band even won a Grammy in 2015. Reflecting on how he has overcome fear in his career, he says, “Going out in front of people and have them judge you can kick off a real fight or flight response. To this day, if I’m being honest, every time I have to go in front of a crowd, I have a feeling of dread. I have to talk myself off the ledge; ‘it’s possible it will go well.’”

Black has performed on the Oscars stage three times. His first time was in 2004 when presenting Best Original Song with Will Ferrell. Black reveals, “That’s one of my core memories now, one of my favorite memories in life. Talk about stage fright, dude! Right before we went on my heart was like a hummingbird. Will was just still and quiet. In your head this is the biggest audience we’re gonna ever be in front of. We had this bit that I knew was funny. It was a song about being played off. I had to just find that little peace in in the eye of the hurricane. We didn’t win an Oscar night but I felt like we did.”

To take things full circle, ‘Peaches’ makes Black eligible to win the Best Original Song Oscar in 2024. The songwriter realizes, “It would mean I have to go up and make a speech. Talk about stage fright!”

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