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Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine – 2011 LAFF

By Ryan Mason · June 24, 2011

When film critic Leonard Maltin threw the panel’s scheduled structure out the window in favor of a more loose conversation with actors Shirley MacLaine and Jack Black, it came with its pros and cons. First, the whole “game show” schtick that was originally planned wasn’t all that great of an idea to begin with. Unless you’re going to go all out with podiums and some sort of actual scoring mechanism with winners and loser and prizes, don’t do it at all. But, at the same time, that type of pop quiz method of interviewing would’ve offered up something new compared to the typical “What was it like working with blah blah blah?” or “What’s your process when you blah blah blah?” questions. So Maltin kept some of those fun, trivia-style questions in there but simply used them as convo starters.

As far as panels go at the LA Film Festival, “Shirley MacLaine and Jack Black: Don’t You Know Who I Am?!” finds itself right there in the middle. Most of the fans in the audience were there to see MacLaine, and rightly so: she’s a true living legend who worked with some of the biggest names Hollywood has ever seen: Frank Sinatra, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Nicholson, just to name a few. And her charisma won the stage even with the likes of the boisterous Black seated next to her. Surprisingly enough, Black seemed completely out of his element here, constantly responding half-normal, half-in-character to all of Maltin’s questions, even the more serious ones that tried to get into the craft of his work. He wasn’t easy for Maltin at all, offering monosyllabic responses to his prompts – not that he was being standoffish, only that he just seemed uncomfortable being asked these questions or was just unaware that he was spending too much time thinking about how to respond that Maltin would either quickly ask something else or ramble on himself to fill the silence. They definitely didn’t have a rhythm going.

Which is probably all the reason Maltin needed to focus his attention on MacLaine, who was much more in tune with both the event and Maltin’s cinematic sensibilities. While Maltin asked Black how many animated characters he’s ever played and then moved on, he asked MacLaine multiple questions just about her costumes. They would riff on follow-up questions for a while before he would lob some funny softballs at Black to get him back in the game and sate the comedian’s fans in the crowd. Considering how easily MacLaine would go off on telling some fun anecdotes – like how Marilyn Monroe flashed her after the premiere of The Apartment, or how she did a bit part in the original Ocean’s 11 just to get a car (a Ford Thunderbird convertible, in case you were wondering) – Maltin was smart to keep her going and sprinkle in some Black as necessary.

Not that Black was a total bomb. Funny enough, two of the best moments with him involved projects of his that never saw the light of day save for the Internet: Heat Vision and Jack, and Drunk History – both of which got a few solid hurrahs from the vastly outnumbered Black fans. Hearing them chat about those along with his breakout role in High Fidelity – he even did an impromptu rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” for the audience in response to Maltin asking him what song his character sang at the end of that flick – reminded me of why I loved Black years ago as he rose to prominence. He’s still loveable and likeable if not exactly suited for panel discussions on the industry.

On the other hand, MacLaine is a seasoned pro who was disappointed that they ended the conversation after just over an hour. You got the impression that she could’ve gone on for hours. (For whatever reason, the schedule always shows these panels running two hours even though they never go close to that long.) And most of the audience was just as bummed, wanting more time with the dancer-turned-actress-turned-author. But I feel like if it had gone on much longer, Black wouldn’t have even needed to be on stage, which would’ve gotten awkward. Plus, as they say, always leave them wanting more. For the MacLaine fans in the crowd, they most certainly did.