Q: Following up on ‘Tropic Thunder,’ were you surprised by that Robert Downey, Jr. controversy over his appearance in black face?

JB: No, it’s a spicy little character he’s playing there. We’re in a very politically correct climate right now and there are certain things that are taboo you can’ do. I think when people see the film they will appreciate an incredible performance. And in the context of the film, I don’t think it will be deemed racist or inflammatory at all, just a very funny and smart comedy.

Q: Jack is your older son able to watch this? And has he gotten a lot of toys?

JB: Yes, Sammy has gotten – I screen the toys though. He’s only 1-year-old. And a lot of toys come in and they say, ‘3 and above,’ ‘4 and 5 and above’ and I’ll hold off on those. Keep those well hid in the attic. Take them down in a couple years.

Q: You can show him some of the pictures at least…

JB: Yeah, I’m gonna wait until he’s…this movie, any movie – you don’t want to take a little baby into a big, dark movie theater. That’s in itself is an intense movie experience.  Even though he’s pretty intense already, but you have to keep things soft and sweet for a bit while longer.

Q: Is he musical?

JB: Yes, very musical. He’s got great rhythm and loves to dance. I made him a dance mix on my iPod which I’m pretty proud of. I think I cracked the code.

Q: What’s on it?

JB: ‘Groove is in the Heart’ by Dee Lite. That’s one of the nuggets. ‘Dancing Queen’ by Abba. What else is on there…’Surf Wax USA’ by Weezer.  Lots of good jams. A little Steve Wonder in there. The one that goes…[does a sound from the song] what is that? ‘World keep on turnin’ because it won’t be too long…’ ‘Higher Ground’ it’s on the baby dance mix. I recommend it for anyone with babies.

Q: Did Jackie Chan have any input and why is the bad guy always British?

JB: Yeah, Darth Vader. All those guys.

MC: They are scary those British. Jackie Chan has seen the movie and sort of the greatest compliment is he really thought the action was terrific. You know when he came in, one of his sessions, he actually did a lot of his sound effect work to picture. He sort of watched his character move through space, so that was really cool, because he can do those sound effects like, well, Jack Black can. He did a fantastic job. Y’know, we didn’t have that opportunity to work with him during the process of production because he was incredibly busy. But, we were honored to show it to him and have him like it. In terms of the British bad guy, yeah I dunno what’s going on there.  Ian McShane is really an amazing, amazing actor. He has such an intensity. Him just him standing in a room when you are sort of trying to pitch the project is like, ‘You wanna be this tiger?’ is really scary. He just gives you that look.  But, the sweetest guy in the world. So, it was a really wonderful opportunity to work with him.  He can go from being a sweet man to the scariest villain in the recording session just two seconds later. He’s just fantastic. Happens to be British by the way.

JB: What was the name of that dude who was the consultant on Kung Fu moves?

MC: Rudolph?

JB: Is that his name? Didn’t he do some work on some actual live action Kung Fu films? I met some guy yesterday…

MC: Oh, Eric Chen, maybe.

JB: Chen, yeah.

MC: He’s a cool guy. He actually taught a class to all of us. I don’t know how many of you have taken a Kung Fu class…

JB: When you say, ‘all of us’? You and all the animators had to go through a class.

MC: Yeah, six-hour class of Kung Fu. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I can do that. We wanna feel what it’s like to be really out of shape and do Kung Fu.’ At the end of the day we were doing knuckle push ups, that was the last thing, and it was like, ‘Ooohhhhhh.’

JB: He teaches a class in LA.

MC: Yeah, he’s great.  He teaches kids…

JB: My neck is still sore because I did a little session with him yesterday at a photo shoot. Making me do official Kung Fu poses.

MC: Yeah, but the animators, for them, until you do it with your own body, you don’t really understand how the character is supposed to do it. How much of your back is involved. All those mechanics.

Q: What is up to D? And the projects you’ve done since?

JB: Tenacious d is a live and well. We are going to do some festivals. Redding and Leeds in England, very famous. And we are going to be opening for Metallica. Just a little band you might have heard of, Metallica. (Laughs.)  And probably do some benefits in LA when we get back from that in August.

Q: I actually wanted to ask…

JB: The other movies – I did a movie with Harold Ramis at the helm called the ‘Year One’ with the young and brilliant Michael Cera. Who I am the president of his fan club after working with him. So great. Smart and, yeah. I am jealous of his magic. ‘What was I doing when I was 20? I did not have that kind of magic.’ Special, special, kid. 

Q: Can you talk about your characters in that film?

JB: We are just two dudes wandering through biblical times. We are not famous characters from the bible. We are not even in the bible at all. This is two dudes, Zed and O, I play Zed and he plays O, wandering. We are in a tribe, a primitive tribe and we wander out of our tribe to go on a quest for the meaning of life. And we see all the major players of the Old Testament. Pretty funny adventure movie.

Q: Does it mean something special to be opening those?

JB: We are very excited. Especially knowing one of the greatest live albums of all time in our opinion, is ‘The Who Live at Leeds’ and we will probably pay some sort of tribute to them. A medley of sorts. And we got some special things in store. We are trying to do some new things that no one has seen. Catch people off guard a little bit, but it will be fun. To play in front of that many people, we’ve never really played that huge a crowd before. It will be like 50,000 people or something crazy like that? More? Whatever. My brain doesn’t go above 50,000. (Laughs.) That is August 20, 21, 22, 23.