“Jack Black would come in and be like ‘What the f**k?'”
First released in Summer 2006, there was a lot of hype around Nacho Libre.
Jack Black was coming in hot off School Of Rock, and it was being directed by the guy behind hit quirky comedy Napoleon Dynamite, so that combination felt like a match made in heaven.
While it did okay at the box office, most critics seemed to dislike it (or at least not understand it), scoring just 40% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Part of that may be because, as it turns out, Nacho Libre was originally intended to be a much darker movie.
In the run-up to the release of her new horror movie The Forever Purge, we sat down with Ana de la Reguera, who played Sister Encarnación, the object of Jack Black’s affections in that movie.
Check out our full interview with de la Reguera below, and we also chatted to the movie’s producer, horror maestro Jason Blum, and you can check out that chat right here.
While we did talk all things Purge and horror (and her impending Irish visits!), we also had to ask about Nacho Libre to celebrate its 15th anniversary, and this is what the actress told us about it:
“I don’t know if anyone has talked about this actually, because they wanted the movie to be also for kids, they took a lot of the story out, because the characters were way darker. And so there were a lot of scenes that were cut, there was actually one big sequence with one actor – I forget his name right now, but he was actually a big actor – who didn’t even make the cut because the scene was very dark.”
“And my character, too! My character actually, in the movie, was in love with Jesus. So they didn’t put that in because it was very strange. But I would paint Jesus naked! And then I remember Jack [Black] would come in and be like ‘What the fuck?’ and I was like ‘I love Jesus!’
“But it’s funny, no-one has ever asked me that, so I applaud you for that! But yeah, there was that scene, or there were other scenes where Jack would have brand new white boots, and there was a kid running, and Jack doesn’t want to go in because his boots would get messed and they’d be ruined. So also they took that out because he is Nacho Libre and he is saving the kids so we can not have that!
“Yeah, there is a lot of scenes that were [cut], and then we did some reshoots because of that, because we had to balance it out. But obviously the spirit of the movie is there, and what the movie is about is there, and I think they did an amazing job, and at the end it is great that all the kids can watch the movie, and that is more for the family and kids watch it over and over. But I think they should do the Jared Hess cut, like the Snyder Cut! Jared Hess cut, definitely!”
The Forever Purge is released in Irish cinemas on Friday 16 July, and if you wanted to check it out, Nacho Libre is available on Netflix right now.
Clip via Universal Pictures Ireland
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