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The coolest man in cinema
Interviewed by Jocelyn Newmarch
Posted Thu, 20 Nov 2003
Click here to read our review of 'SWAT'
The coolest man in cinema is a little bored today. Can’t blame him really — I’m probably number 73 in the queue of journalists, media representatives, TV presenters and so on, all of whom just want to shake his hand, take a photo, and find out what makes him tick. And all in under 15 minutes, if you please, and try not to step on anybody’s toes.
Nevertheless, there’s still a certain presence about Samuel L Jackson. He’s tall, not quite as muscley as he looks on screen, but with an undeniable, hard-to-define air about him.
You often play cop characters and action heroes. Why’s that?
Actually what happens is I generally pick the story first. I read the script and if the story is interesting and I think it’s something I would pay my money to go and see as an audience member then that’s the first good thing. Then the next thing is looking at the character on the inside of the story, that I’ve either been offered or that intrigues me the most, and pursue it.
If it’s a drama/suspense or action picture, it’s pretty much a “who did it”. So you got the guy who did it or the guy who’s trying to figure out who did it. I guess I’ve been on both ends of that spectrum. I’ve been the bad guy and I’ve been the guy who’s trying to figure out who did it.
I like to be the guy who has the most interesting dilemma or the greatest raison d’etre and that leaves me with being the good guy or the bad guy. So I’ve done a few different kinds of cops and a few different kinds of bad guys. And I guess, before it’s over, I’ll have done a few more different kinds of cops and a few more different kinds of bad guys. It just happens that way.
But you’ve never wanted to be a romantic hero in some epic set in the Middle Ages?
Well, yeah, I would like to be but, you know, when you think about that, there aren’t a lot of stories that are about people of colour that are in that particular era. Maybe, once emerging stories start to come out of this country, about those particular times or that particular era, maybe there are some stories that are like that. And maybe I will be capable of portraying that particular kind of person.
I often think of myself as some black courtier in the French Revolution or whatever. A great swordfighter, a great poet, lover, all that sort of stuff. I think of myself that way, but apparently no writer has yet. And I’m no writer, I can’t write that particular story.
What about 'Country of My Skull'?
Oh, 'Country of My Skull', yeah, I guess that’s a sort of role for me, playing a journalist from the Washington Post, comes to South Africa to review the Truth and Reconciliation trials, and meets a South African journalist, played by Juliette Binoche, and I do end up in a sort of romantic entanglement with her.
How do you think the movie will be received?
Hopefully well. Oddly enough, John Boorman is actually here now, and we ran into each other yesterday. He’s been doing workshops with students, and in fact Mr Mandela is supposed to see the film today. We’ve shown it to a few South Africans and they’ve all received the film well. They’ve done a great job of interpreting the novel in that particular way.
It’s important to us that the novel is received well here. Whatever the Western people say about the particular story is unimportant compared to what the South Africans think of it, because it’s their story.
You were an executive producer on '51st State', as well as starring in it. But the film didn’t get a very good reaction from critics. How did that feel?
The British critics liked it, because it’s about them. I think the critics here liked it because they understand British humour.
American critics didn’t get it because they don’t get British humour and there’s something about Americans — when a film’s not about them, they don’t particularly pay much attention to it and they don’t know how to criticise it.
But for me, it’s like I said before. I read a script and I read it as an audience member. I say to myself, would I pay money to go see this film? Would I pay money to see me in this film? And that particular film made me laugh out loud.
I enjoyed it and I knew as an audience member it would be fun. Audiences got it. People bought that film, people own that film and people talk to me about that film all the time. So the satisfaction for me is that I was right.
Your favourite character?
Wow. That’s always a difficult question because I like them all so much. I guess the one that I watch and enjoy and laugh at the most is Mitch Hennessy in ‘Long Kiss Goodnight’, which was another film that didn’t get critical success. Everybody owns it, everybody loves it, it’s a great action movie. Geena was great, it was fun to be with her, I like that girl a lot.
Do you have a soft, cuddly side that we don’t get to see?
I’m pretty much not like the majority of characters that I play. I’m quiet, introspective, I’ve got a big only child syndrome, in that I get to pretend to be other people a lot and that helps me work out a lot of things in my day-to-day existence. It’s also cheaper than lying on a sofa talking to somebody about it.
Are you concerned your films could be criticised as glorifying violence?
Why would I be concerned about that? The history of the American cinema is pretty much wham, bam. Violence has always been one of the entertaining factors. They’ve always made Westerns and they’ve always made war movies and gangster movies, there were always movies with those kinds of things in them.
All the movies I’ve done have not been movies that glorify violence. They have violence as an element and that’s just the nature of the thing. Those are characters and those are stories.
As a part of the storytelling process, I’m responsible to that particular story, and to be as honest and as open to what goes on in that story as I possibly can be, and that’s what the audience has paid their money to come and see. And that’s what I do.
In terms of who I am and what I stand for, it’s totally different. I’m an ordinary guy who has an extraordinary job and people get to watch me. I’ve got a college degree, I’ve never been arrested, I’ve never been in jail, I’ve been married to the same person for about 23 years, I’m a responsible father, a son, all those different things. I contribute to a lot of charitable causes, I’m well-spoken, soft-spoken, fun loving. That’s who I am and it has nothing to do with what I do onscreen. I just kind of try and do my job well.
Samuel L Jackson's latest blockbuster is 'SWAT'. Click here to read our review.
