IS: Tina Fey auditioned for the role in which we ultimately cast Sarah Silverman. MW: It was so fun to see those kids as real performers … I think that obviously made the movie feel more authentic as far as the musical performances, but I think it also made it more authentic as far as the acting performances, too. And I'm pretty sure the casting director was like, we cannot pass up this 10-year-old child who is boy soprano-ing 'Send in the Clowns' right now. I played a Lenny Kravitz song, rocked out, and I booked it.īrian Falduto, actor (Billy): I went in and did a boys' soprano rendition of 'Send in the Clowns' from A Little Night Music. My mom punked me out, had me in all black and I bought an electric guitar. A couple weeks later, they called me in again and said, ‘Just come in and show us that you can rock out.’ I came in with these fake Limited Too hair extensions. It didn’t matter if they had had prior acting experience in fact, we wanted the film to have a freshness, re: unknown talent where possible.īecca Brown, actress (Katie): I think I played 'Here Comes the Sun' by The Beatles and showed them I could play guitar. Everyone involved knew that finding the right young people, even if not professional actors, who also had musical gifts would require time, patience, and an intensive search. We had an unusually long casting process of seven months. Ilene Starger, casting director: I began casting in New York in 2002. I was a color on his palette, someone had cast me as the right person to perhaps realize this thing that he thought had potential. I pass.’ I got a call that was like ‘Scott Rudin, the producer, isn’t accepting your pass’ and I’m like ‘what does that mean?’ … He was just sure I was the right guy to pull this off … It was a huge, different thing for me to come aboard. Richard Linklater, director (from an interview for Richard Linklater: Dream is Destiny): Here’s a script, Jack Black's attached, what do you think? I’m like ‘ehh, I don’t know how to do this. Fields a little bit, like a guy who isn't really somebody you'd want around kids, but that's part of the fun of it. Then I got the idea that it would be fun to have him be more of a W.C. I had the idea of him leading a band of little kids-somehow it just seemed like a funny visual. I'm reading these scripts and I was like, ‘I could do better than this.’ Obviously, music is a big passion of his he has his band Tenacious D. They were invariably these flat comedies or he was like the John Belushi guy who gets drunk and falls through a sliding glass door or something. He was starting to get a lot of heat as an actor and he would occasionally give me scripts that had been submitted to him to star in. Mike White, writer and actor: Jack was my next-door neighbor for a few years. In honor of its anniversary, Viacom spoke to some of the stars, creators, and production executives who were part of the process. It revived the idea that a movie made for families should be just as emotionally layered, well-acted, and hilarious as a film for adults. The film exceeded initial box office projections-and went on to become a Broadway show and a Nickelodeon television series-because of its sophisticated performances and unfettered humor. It’s also due to a storyline centered on the heartwarming trope of an adult goofball who finds meaning in teaching children. The movie’s enduring appeal has a bit to do with this unorthodox collusion of talent, including an endearing cast of kid musicians. ( School of Rock remains Linklater’s top-grossing film ever, with an inflation-adjusted global box office of $180 million.) At the time, the actor was best known for his role as the record store know-it-all from High Fidelity, while director Richard Linklater had earned indie fame for Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, and Before Sunset. White wrote the film to showcase Black’s comedic chops, in opposition to the predictable scripts that Hollywood was handing him-or the “boring frat-guy garbage” as Black described to The New York Times. Do you picture kids in school uniforms behind giant instruments and Jack Black’s mischievous grin every time you hear the first few seconds of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”? If you do, you know the association is thanks to Mike White’s seminal classic School of Rock, which hit theaters 15 years ago this month.
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