Jack Black's Only Job Before Acting Was 1 Day of Telemarketing: 'My Soul Is Being Sucked'
- - Jack Black's Only Job Before Acting Was 1 Day of Telemarketing: 'My Soul Is Being Sucked'
Tommy McArdleDecember 26, 2025 at 11:57 PM
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Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Jack Black on March 28, 2000; Jack Black on Dec. 13, 2005 -
Jack Black recalled that he worked as a telemarketer for one day before he quit and went all-in on pursuing an acting career
"It was like, 'It's showbiz or bust,' " he remembered thinking
Black made his film debut in 1993's Airborne and Demolition Man, and his new movie Anaconda is in theaters now
Jack Black knew acting was the only career path for him.
When the actor, 56, and his Anaconda costar Paul Rudd sat down to interview each other for Rotten Tomatoes in a video shared Wednesday, Dec. 24, Black admitted he barely worked before pursuing acting full time.
"Oh my God, this is a shameful answer. I never had a job," Black said, when Rudd, also 56, asked him if he had any jobs that kept him afloat financially before he broke out in Hollywood.
Black then recalled one job that he briefly held: "I did one day of telemarketing and I didn't make one sale, and I was like, 'I can already tell my soul is being sucked.' And I bailed, and I made a decision right then and there."
"It was like, 'It's showbiz or bust. I'm going all in on acting or music, and if I can't do it I'll just live at my mom's,' " he said. "I know that just sounds [weird]. I had no plan B, no backup."
"You didn't need it. You were destined for this," Rudd added.
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Jack Black in 1994's The Neverending Story III
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Anaconda stars Black and Rudd alongside Steve Zahn and Thandiwe Newton as a group of amateur filmmakers traveling to the Amazon jungle to reboot the original movie.
Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube, who costarred in the original 1997 movie, make surprise cameos alongside Rudd and Black's characters as they attempt to reboot the franchise and get mixed up with a deadly snake in the jungle.
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Paul Rudd and Jack Black on Dec. 13, 2025
When Rudd and Black spoke with PEOPLE about making the movie together, Rudd was complimentary of his costar, whom he referred to as "a hero of mine."
While Rudd and Black appeared on screen together briefly in the 2004 comedy Anchorman and as John Lennon and Paul McCartney in 2007's Walk Hard, they had never shared the big screen as leading actors.
“It really was the first time,” Rudd tells PEOPLE, that “I really got to see [Black] in action… People are in awe, rightfully so, of him. And the greatest thing about all of that was, no matter who it was at whatever age — especially kids — Jack is such a good dude, that to see him interact with every single person was astounding.”
Anaconda is in theaters now.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
