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Funnyman Jack Black, back in the soon-to-be-released Gulliver's Travels tells TOI in this exclusive, that he does have a serious side too!

We are all aware of Gulliver's journey as presented in the books. But what's Gulliver's story in this film?
Well, here, Gulliver is an aspiring writer who has a lowly position in the mailroom at a newspaper. He desperately wants to impress his editor and so he accepts a risky assignment about the Bermuda Triangle that takes him on a dangerous seafaring adventure. And so Gulliver finds himself washed up on the shores of Lilliput where he is enslaved by the tiny inhabitants.

The Gulliver in the film is an average Joe in America, a very faulty person. Is that a reflection of how you wanted the character to be or you just picked it up from your own references?
It is what I wanted to be. It is something that I envisioned. I spoke about this with the writers that were hired to create this sort of adaptation. I thought it was a great advantage to add this element to the classic novel which was playing with the ideas of large and small in terms of egos and people. In today's society everyone is insecure of being lost in the crowd, not having a presence and wanting to make an impact in the world before they die. There is a lot of panic because of that.

He is also a big Hollywood Geek. He is into all the films that deal with cult cinema. Is that something personal to you? Are you a Hollywood geek?
I am a sci-fi nerd. I would be more specific. I'm not just all things Hollywood. But I like Star Wars, Titanic.....more specifically probably, James Cameron's earlier work like Terminator, and Aliens.

Like we see onscreen, is Jack Black funny in real life too?
It's pretty much in real life. I like to be funny. But I do have a side, and a private side that people do not see; I also like to go home with the kids.

Was it difficult to be funny when, while filming Gulliver's, there was just equipment and no actors around?
It is difficult in terms of technical aspects like where you need to look. Your eye-line is very important, with these kind of movies because if you are walking and your eye-line is not towards the tiny person you're supposed to be walking towards, then it takes you out of the film for a moment and that ruins the emotional art of the scene. So those things have to be spot on. And its really painstaking....it'll make you insane!