NEED TO KNOW
- Jack Black reacted to Elle Fanning’s viral lie detector test in which she calls him “sex on legs” and the “hottest man I’ve ever seen in my life”
- Black got bashful while reacting to the clip with Anaconda costar Paul Rudd, and shared a message for Elle’s boyfriend
- Elle first revealed her crush on the actor in 2024, saying he is her “hall pass”
To Elle Fanning, Jack Black is “sex on legs” — and he has a hard time wrapping his mind around it.
The actor, 56, reacted to Fanning’s viral Vanity Fair lie detector interview, in which she discussed her and sister Dakota Fanning’s group chat dedicated to Black’s attractiveness.
Black watched the Sentimental Value actress’s flattery alongside his Anaconda costar Paul Rudd in a video shared Sunday, Dec. 14 — or, more accurately, listened, as he bashfully kept his eyes closed for most of the video.
“Hottest man I’ve ever seen in my life,” Elle, 27, says in the viral moment. “Sex on legs, baby. Hubba, hubba. It’s like, ‘Hallelujah!’ ”
The School of Rock actor chalked Elle’s crush up to something he called “goblin dysmorphia.”
“Have you ever heard of body dysmorphia, where when you look at yourself, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m so ugly,’ but really you’re like this gorgeous creature? I think she’s got, like, the opposite of that,” he explained, “where she looks at me — which, objectively, is a goblin gremlin — and she sees this gorgeous creature, apparently. She’s got that weird, like, goblin dysmorphia.”
The Minecraft Movie star also thanked Elle — and apologized to her boyfriend, Rolling Stone CEO Gus Wenner, whose name also came up in the Vanity Fair video.
“Would you leave your boyfriend if Jack Black declared his love for you?” asked Dakota, who, when a few seconds passed, added, “Elle, that is taking a long time.” After Elle declared her loyalty to her boyfriend, the polygraph examiner noted, “The machine is picking up some deception.”
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Of Elle’s flattery, however, Black said: “Thank you. I appreciate the compliment, but I have to close my eyes because I can’t quite process what I’m hearing there.”
“But thank you, Elle,” he added, “and to the boyfriend: Dude, we’ve got no beef. We’re cool. I didn’t do nothing to deserve this attention.”
It was at this point in the Anaconda stars’ reaction video that Rudd, 56, chimed in to make Black even more bashful. “I will say, on behalf of Elle Fanning,” Rudd said as Black once again closed his eyes, “I get it.”
Black, still in apparent disbelief, fired back, “No, you don’t, you son of a biscuit.” But former Sexiest Man Alive Rudd remained steadfast in his support of Elle’s crush.
“I really do. I think that I adore you, Jack, as does America, as does the world. Elle’s got it right. Elle’s got it right,” he added as Black fanned himself off and added, “It’s steamy in here.”
Before her viral lie detector moment, Elle revealed her crush and group chat on The Tonight Show in late 2024 while discussing selfies she took with Black months earlier at the Golden Globes. (“Also THIS! Life made!” she captioned those snaps.)
Elle Fanning/Instagram
Of their Globes selfie, Fanning explained: “We were waiting for our cars at the valet at the same time, and my boyfriend [Wenner] was with me, he was like, ‘Go up to him, go up to him,’ and he convinced me to, and I did. Then my boyfriend yelled to him, he was like, ‘You’re her hall pass, by the way!’ ”
Black, who was there with his wife Tanya Haden, “loved” the remark, the actress added. “We were laughing,” she said. “I mean, I was turning bright red. I, like, still am.”