Hello Jack, your new movie’s called Year One. Was it fun to make?
Yeah, we had some funny times. At one point, I introduced my baby to the animal trainer. She had a monkey and was feeding it grapes and offered one to my baby. I said, “Nah, he doesn’t need one of those. The monkey’s been holding them.” But she went ahead and just pushed it into his mouth. Also, you shouldn’t give babies grapes because they choke on them.

That’s not really very funny…
You wanted an amusing anecdote and I think that’s a pretty good one. Year One’s a comedy retelling of some Bible stories.

Are you concerned about a backlash from angry Christians?
I guess I kind of do expect a backlash. As long as we don’t get a backwash. Or, what’s the thing that happens when you’re a firefighter and you knock down a door? A backdraft. A backlash I can take – a couple of lashes to my back.

And if they’re protesting, it’s free publicity…
That’s true. Maybe we should have played on that a little bit more. But you don’t want to go dangling your religious beliefs out there for all to see. Listen man, remember what John Lennon did. Yeah dude, look – he died. You know why? Religion.

Really?
I’m not sure.

Er… OK. There are loads of Bible stories that aren’t in the movie. Does that mean you’re gearing up for a sequel?
Year Two? It’s definitely possible. 
I want to tackle all of the stories. They’re just standing there in the open field, waiting for me to run out and full-speed tackle them. We’ve only scratched the tip of the iceberg. We basically gave the Bible a circumcision. Just the tip.

ZOO went undercover at an orgy this week and there’s an orgy scene in Year One, although it’s pretty tame compared with what we saw. Are you holding the good stuff back for the DVD?
No man, you’re not allowed to show pumping. Didn’t you see Eyes Wide Shut? The director of that film, Stanley Kubrick, ran up against the same dilemma: how do you do an orgy without pumping? It’s very difficult. I don’t even think there’s pumping in an R [American version of an 18]. Pumping equals X-rated. It’s an amazing equation: a soft cock equals a hard R. But a hard cock equals an X.

You eat shit in the movie. How did it taste?
It was actually chocolate. It tasted really good. That was some seriously good shit.

Your director was Harold 
Ramis, who’s gearing up for Ghostbusters 3 – do you see this as an audition for that movie?
Audition? Ha ha! That would be arduous. 'Really? We’re on our 50th day of auditions? Don’t you feel like you know what I can do by now?'

You turn 40 in a couple of months. Have you calmed the wild man in you?
The wild man is almost completely tamed. He ran in the fields freely for so long. The wild man is satisfied, so I’ve domesticated myself. He’s happy curling himself into a warm bundle by the fire.

Right… Do you get recognised very often?
Yeah, I get some props. One guy recently said, 'Oh, Jack Black. Didn’t really like Be Kind Rewind.' I’m like, 'Oh.' And he continued, 'But I did like School Of Rock.' So I said, 'Thank you for your honesty. I’ll have the cheeseburger.' And it was pretty good. You know what makes a really good cheeseburger? It’s soft. It’s almost like a cheeseburger cake. You know? As opposed to the crispy bun, or the overly doughy bagel. It needs to be a soft, cakey bun. Mmm.

Sounds tasty, where can we get one from?
I got mine at a children’s indoor playground called Gambado. There’s a three-level maze. I was chasing my boy through it and all the surfaces were soft and mushy 
so you couldn’t get hurt. I worked 
up such a sweat in there though, 
so thought I deserved a cakey cheeseburger. But some of the other parents there looked at me with disgust – they didn’t want me sweating on their kids. I don’t 
blame them.

And what’s going on with your band, Tenacious D?
There’s a new album in our minds, but we’re yet to put it down on tape. When we’re done with the projects we’re working on, we’ll put our 
nose to the grindstone every day – 
I guarantee you. At least two hours 
a day. I can tell you the names of some of the songs we’ve been working on: Dethstarr, spelled differently to avoid a lawsuit. It’s epic. It starts as a space ballad, then goes to very, very hard rock. Then back to spacey ballad again. And then there’s Quantum Leap, which is about people who push humanity forward with their genius.

And is that also spelled differently to avoid lawsuits?
Quantum Leap? Oh my God, is Quantum Leap a thing already?

It’s a TV show.
Shit! OK, then it’s spelt with a 'c' – cwantum. And there’s also a song called Rise Of The Phoenix because clearly Tenacious D has taken a few body blows. Our film was a floparoo and our next record has to be a comeback album, so this is our 
Eye Of The Tiger.

Year One is in cinemas now. Watch the featurette below