Samuel L Jackson

Interview By: Benjamin Lee BenjaminLee@TheCinemaSource.com

Ever since he broke out in the 1994 cult smash Pulp Fiction, Samuel L Jackson has amassed an incredible 43 movies.

At the age of 58, the Oscar nominated actor continues to work at a frightening pace, racking up a wide variety of mainstream and independent roles. From the blockbusting Star Wars appearances to the harrowing courtroom drama A Time to Kill to the kid-friendly antics in The Incredibles, Jackson never seems happy to regurgitate, despite his long resume.

Having recently fought both pesky stowaways in Snakes on a Plane and negative reviews in the overblown racial drama Freedomland, Jackson makes a strong start for 07 with his latest offering, Black Snake Moan. Jackson plays Lazarus, a weathered old blues player who finds himself at a lonely crossroads after his wife leaves him for another man. In comes troubled town slut Rae, played by a revelatory Christina Ricci, who Jackson decides to help.

It comes from Hustle & Flow writer/director Craig Brewer and although the casting of Jackson in the role is admittedly perfect, he admits that he wasn’t the first choice by a long shot.

‘John Singleton sent me the script by mistake’ Jackson shares, ‘He read it and saw me in the role and sent it to me but Craig had somebody else in mind. It started a little controversy with me having the script and why John had done that and a lot of phone calls flew through the air.’ Luckily fate intervened and Brewer began to change his mind. ‘Craig saw me on some television show talking about my life and the things that I’ve been through and thought maybe he is the guy.’

Jackson was immediately drawn to the role, especially the chance it gave him to relive his youth. ‘It was an opportunity for me to be Southern again’ he admits, ‘It’s the way I grew up. It kinda shows the men that I was

around. They were strong and had principles.’ At the other end of the spectrum is Rae, an abused nymphomaniac who he finds bruised and battered on the road.

‘There’s a very interesting situation in this film because these two people have never met anyone who’s like themselves or each other’ Jackson tells, ‘He’s never met a woman who’s described as a nymphomaniac. He has no idea what sexual dysfunction is but when someone tells him she can’t live without it to him that means she’s possessed by the devil. He thinks if I can get the word in her then I can get the devil out of her. She’s never met a man that she couldn’t manipulate sexually. They’re at a crossroads so the only way he can get her to listen to him is by chaining her to that radiator.’

It’s the shocking imprisonment of Ricci’s character that has got the film an insane amount of pre-release buzz. The controversial posters, showing a scantily clad Ricci chained to a wife-beater adorned Jackson have had a lot of people talking. But Jackson is quick to silence those who see anything racial about the image. ‘It’s not a big of a deal as people are gonna think it is just by seeing the poster’ he stresses, ‘They think it’s gonna be like reverse slavery. It’s just a way of getting people to come into the movie. I guess in the old South it would have been a different type of film. This is the modern South. It doesn’t look like it but it is. As much as things change things stay the same.’

An integral part of the picture is music. The blues to be specific. Jackson’s character is a retired blues player and we get to see him sing and play guitar for real, something he relished doing. ‘I’ve always wanted to be a rock star’ he states, ‘I don’t know if most actors wanna do it but

I know, being a person who likes music, you sit around and you play air guitar and air drums. Just stand in the middle of a stage and have 10,000 people in the stadium to hear you playing and have them in the palm of your hand. So being able to physically be on a stage with a real band actually playing for real people and to see them dancing and responding to us was a tremendous feeling.’

It’s not just the physicality of the blues which are shown in the movie but it’s the mood of the music which is infused throughout. ‘All of his [Craig Brewer's] stories have a rhythm’ Jackson believes, ‘The rap beat of Hustle & Flow fuels that movie. The blues fuel this movie in an interesting sort of way. There’s kind of like a tone that moves through this film. It’s kind of easy-going, kinda sad at times like the blues can be, kinda joyous at times just like other blues can be and it’s very relaxing. Folks are just kinda doin nothing. You just sorta feel the heat, hear the bugs.’

For such a giant movie star as Samuel L Jackson, his performance in Black Snake Moan is breathtaking to watch. We all know Jackson and we all have certain expectations of what he may bring to a role but with the character of Lazarus he truly disappears within the movie. We don’t watch Jackson, we watch Lazarus. It’s something as an actor which he takes pleasure in doing.

‘I actually tend to enjoy doing things to myself so that when people look at it they don’t go oh that’s Sam Jackson’ he says, ‘It bothers my agent and manager a lot because they’re like we wanna see you and I’m like you can see me anytime. People are paying their money to go and watch a story about these specific people. The more that I can change or the

more that I can do things to myself to get away from who I am and give them a character the more satisfied I am.’

Changing his voice pattern, the way that he carries himself – it’s all important to Jackson to remind us that he’s acting, not merely appearing. ‘It’s challenging for me as an actor to remember’ he believes, ‘I actually see actors start out doing things in some films and then by the middle they’re not doing it anymore and then someone reminds them and they start doing it again. My wife does that a lot and she’ll say I just wanted to make sure you held onto the same thing for the whole time!’

It’s rare for an actor with a career such as Jackson to have gained fame at such a late stage. But the added maturity that he possessed helped him to stick around for a lot longer than many of his contemporaries. He admits that had it hit him at a younger age, he would have fallen apart. ‘I probably would have gone through the same thing most of these kids do’ he believes, ‘I’d end up in more tabloids than movies. Everything happens for a reason. I always tell young actors that the reality of what this is is a lot bigger than what the dream is because you don’t know what to dream for. Everybody thinks Hollywood is going to premieres and filming in exotic places. It’s a lot more than that.’

Recently Jackson managed to overtake Harrison Ford as the most successful actor of all time, based on box office statistics. His movies have made over $3 billion worldwide. Jackson is typically humble about this fact. ‘It’s a numbers game’ he believes, ‘It’s an interesting statistic to say that my films have made more money than anybody’s films have in the history of showbusiness. But my three Star Wars movies take care of most of that. Then I

did another little film somewhere in the middle of that called Jurassic Park and I was fortunate enough to be in Die Hard [With a Vengeance] and little things like Pulp Fiction and The Incredibles. So fortunately I’ve made some choices that have been very good. So the number itself is kind of deceptive in terms of how popular I really am.’

Making choices is something Jackson deems to be one of his most important jobs. He usually makes three or four movies a year so choosing the right project is important. But for an actor who gained an Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Pulp Fiction, he doesn’t let his reputation affect his choices. Hence the move from Snakes on a Plane to Black Snake Moan.

‘I just do the films that come across my desk’ he confesses, ‘They don’t come across my desk in any particular order. So I’ll read a film that’s fun for me to do where I get to shoot a lot of guns and run and chase people – I like to do that. Then I’ll read something like Black Snake Moan which is an acting challenge. Whichever films ready to go is the film I’ll do. I like to know what I’m doing three films down the road.’ Next for Jackson is the boxing drama Resurrecting the Champ where he plays ‘a homeless ex-boxing champ who’s discovered by a reporter trying to make a name for himself.’ And just to make sure he doesn’t get typecast he also has the horror movie 1408 and the sci-fi thriller Jumper in the can.

Is there anything Jackson hasn’t done?

‘I’m still looking to do a really cool western’ he smiles, ‘Just because I grew up watching them and it’s one of those film things where we’d watch a western, go home and put on our guns and we’d be shooting at each other. It’s one of those things which has always been in

me. I’ve got lots of scripts for westerns that aren’t good. If the film’s not as good as Unforgiven then why do it?’

With all this work on the go, finding time to relax seems like it would be a luxury for Jackson. He laughs and denies this to be true. ‘I have a contract clause that says I have to play golf twice a week.’

As effortlessly cool now as he was 13 years ago in his breakout movie Pulp Fiction, Samuel L Jackson easily deserves his reputation and then some. After such a prolific career, he admits that the word nervous doesn’t have a place in his vocabulary. ‘I’m always anxious…anxious to do it!’ he smirks, ‘It’s too late to be scared.’