Jack Black is relieved his sons are bonding

Jack Black is relieved his sons are bonding.

The ‘Year One’ actor says three-year-old Samuel, his eldest child with wife Tanya Haden, initially resented Thomas, now 13 months, but is slowly embracing his younger brother.

Jack said: “The first year is kind of a gelatinous period but he’s starting to get a personality now.

“At first, Sam was like, ‘Ugh, I don’t want this thing around me!’ But now he’s starting to say, ‘OK, there’s something I can work with here. I can maybe play with this guy.’ ”

Although the boys generally get on well, Jack, 39, admits there are still occasions when he has to stop his oldest boy from bullying his sibling.

He told US TV talk show host David Letterman: “Once in a while Sam still gets really mad that there’s another baby there, and he will punch him in the face. And I say, ‘No, no, he’s a baby. You don’t punch.’ So he’s learned to get crafty with it, where he’ll come in for a loving embrace but then you’ll see it, he’ll squeeze Tommy too hard on purpose. I’ll say, ‘No no no, don’t squeeze!’ But I feel that there’s going to be a good bond there - eventually. That’s my hope.”

As the actor approaches his 40th birthday, he is focusing on the distant future and says he wants to raise “responsible, kind gentlemen”.

He added: “I figure I’ve got, like, 30 really good years left, and then five or 10 not very good years after that, and I just want to get it all in. I want to raise my boys and lead them into manhood, to be responsible, kind gentleman

“Primarily, I wan to have a good relationship with my boys and have things in common with them. So I hope that they’re into the arts and the LA Lakers. But, you know, I can’t force them to do anything. We’ll see what happens.”