Q&A: Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson (Credit: Jim Spellman/WireImage.com)

Samuel L. Jackson has played swaggering heroes, sinister villains and men who occupy the morally ambiguous middle ground in between. He’s fought pythons and sharks and more than his fair share of bad scripts.

But two things have been consistent throughout Jackson’s career: his effortless sense of cool and his crowd-pleasing way with a certain four-letter expletive that rhymes with “duck.”

That’s especially true of his newest film, “Soul Men,” a comedy in which he plays a has-been soul singer named Louis who reluctantly re-teams with a former bandmate (Bernie Mac) for a tribute performance.

The actor recently sat down with us to assess his musical skills, talk about why he actually enjoys impersonations of his thunderous line readings, and pay a tribute of his own to co-star Mac, who died unexpectedly this past summer after being hospitalized for a severe case of pneumonia.

Do you think you’re a good singer?
Sam? No! Louis? He’s all right. I’ve done enough musicals in college and in the theatre in New York [that] I know how to carry a tune. I can learn choreography. I can sing and dance if I have to. I’m not looking for a record deal, but I can support somebody.

What was it like to star in a comedy, it’s pretty rare for you?
I’d like to think that a lot of my characters have a strange sense of humor. Even Abel Turner [from “Lakeview Terrace”] has a sense of humor; it may be very warped, but it’s a sense of humor. But I enjoy doing comedy. The thing you have to be very careful about when you’re doing comedy is people on the outside saying, “we can make it funnier.” It’s either funny or it’s not. Especially if you’ve got Bernie doing it, you don’t need to help him make it funnier. Just turn the camera on, get out of the way, and I guarantee you’re gonna have something you can put in the movie.

Was your chemistry with Bernie something that was there from the start, or did you have to get to know each other?
Well, jeez, when I first met Bernie, that was 15 years ago or so. He used to do a comedy night at my golf tournament in Bermuda. And then I didn’t see him as much, but when I was in Chicago shooting “The Negotiator,” he took care of me. He took me around, fed me at his house, showed me Chicago, hit me in the back with a golf ball. So we had known each other for a very long time, and we had been friends. People have been trying to find a project for us to do for a long time, and threw concepts at us that we just didn’t like the sound of. His manager, Steven, came up with this concept, of these grumpy old soul men on the road to New York, and it just worked for us.

Where were you when you heard about his passing?
I was in New York doing press for, I think, “Lakeview Terrace,” and Star Jones called us and told us that Bernie had passed, and then the next day Isaac [Hayes, who cameos in “Soul Men” as himself] passed. And then folks started calling and wanting to know if they should put me in a safe house somewhere.

How did you react?
I was sort of surprised, but not shocked. My first thought was, “wow, Bernie didn’t see the movie, and he’s not gonna see it.” But the next day’s not promised to any of us. When audiences see [this movie], they will see the guy that they knew, loved, invited into their homes, the guy that made ‘em laugh till they peed in “Kings of Comedy,” and they’ll discover he can sing, dance, and do some other stuff dramatically that they’ve never seen him do. So it’s sort of a fitting last picture for him.

IMDb credits you with over 100 movies. How many of them can you say you’re truly happy with?
The majority of them. There are only a few movies that I’ll look at and say, “I’d like to fix that.” I’ve had bad experiences shooting [some], but I can’t let my animosity towards the people that I’m working with cloud what I have to do onscreen or interfere with the story, because I’m there to service the story and the audience. The audience deserves the best of me that they can get. There’s always plenty of time for me to say “f--- you” to the people I’m working with.

After all that time on camera, have you ever felt the urge to try directing?
No. My job is cool—I get to go to work, get in my trailer, I watch “Judge Judy,” I work for ten minutes, I go back to my trailer. These guys [directors], they gotta stay out there and make shots. They gotta talk to people about sets. Then they gotta spend the next six months in an editing room with somebody, watching little pieces of the movie and putting it together. I don’t like puzzles that much. And directors don’t get paid anywhere near as much as we do.

How do you feel about the Samuel L. Jackson impersonators out there, like Dave Chappelle’s “Sam Jackson Beer” sketch?
I have no problem with that. Parody is flattery. There are people who go through their whole careers, and nobody remembers one thing that they said in a movie. And [I love] the fact that so many people like the things that I’ve done, and there are people that yell at me, “you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France” on the street every day, or, “yes, they deserve to die, and I hope they burn in hell!” So, every day, there’s something, and it’s fine, it’s wonderful.

Find showtimes for "Soul Men."