Samuel L. Jackson
Action Jackson
With more than 100 movies on his resume, SAMUEL L. JACKSON is one of the most well-known names in Hollywood—and he’s not slowing down any time soon.
By Bret Love
SAMUEL L. JACKSON strides confidently into a New York City hotel suite, his Kangol cap cocked just so, prescription glasses lending his slick image an air of unpretentious intelligence, and a broad smile that suggests he is a man completely content with his lot in life. Both on- and off-screen, the veteran actor has long since established himself as the epitome of Hollywood cool, balancing dynamic passion and intensity with an easygoing sense of approachability. But unlike many Hollywood stars, who seem to possess the attitude of entitlement that comes from being given the gold keys to fame and fortune before they’ve sacrificed enough blood, sweat and tears to truly appreciate it, the 58-year-old Jackson worked hard to earn his position in the bright celebrity spotlight.
Born in Washington, DC, in 1948, Jackson spent his formative years in the sleepy town of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he played various brass instruments in the elementary and high school orchestras. He suffered from a serious stutter until a speech therapist suggested that acting might help. Eventually, he moved to Atlanta to attend Morehouse College, where he was suspended after an altercation with several members of the Board of Trustees during a politically motivated protest. According to Jackson, it was just the beginning of his brushes with the long arm of the law as an active participant in the black student movement.
“There were times in the ’70s when I got pulled over because I used to wear Angela Davis and ‘Fight the War’ T-shirts,” he recalls. “That’s when the police were pretty much able to do whatever they wanted. Then when I was in Atlanta, I used to get pulled over a lot because I drove fast and had a big afro. I looked like Jimi Hendrix, so there was always the suspicion that I was inebriated or high or something.”
After graduating in 1972, Jackson pursued a career as an actor in earnest, joining the Negro Ensemble Company (which also featured Morgan Freeman) and getting bit parts in various TV movies. But by the time he’d turned 40, his biggest claims to thespian fame were working as a camera stand-in for Bill Cosby on “The Cosby Show” and a minor supporting role in fellow Morehouse grad Spike Lee’s debut film, School Daze. It wasn’t until 1991 that he performed his breakthrough role as a drug addict in Lee’s Jungle Fever that Jackson began to attract the attention of casting directors and audiences alike. By 1992 he was working at a breakneck pace of three to four films a year—a tradition which continues even now, 15 years later, when mere financial necessity can no longer explain such dedication to his craft.
“I like my job,” Jackson insists with a laugh when asked why he still works at such a feverish pace. “I mean, I am an actor, and I always think actors should act. If I had my way, I’d do film, television, theatre, whatever. It just so happens my agent and managers think I should continue to do films. Hopefully I’ll be like Michael Caine and find roles that fit what I can do in my age range even when I get older. But I grew up in a household of people that went to work every day, and I think that is what adults do—they go to work. I happen to have a very cool job.”
With this, Jackson lets loose a boisterous laugh that makes it clear he doesn’t take the perks of fame too seriously. Indeed, despite his ceaseless commitment to his craft, the Oscar-nominated actor (for his role as hit man Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction) continues to approach his career with the mind-set of an overgrown kid who’s finally been given the keys to the candy store. For every highbrow film like The Red Violin or art house favorite such as Eve’s Bayou on Jackson’s resume, there are a dozen crowd-pleasing genre flicks such as the Star Wars prequel trilogy, xXx and Snakes on a Plane—and he admits that his eclectic choice of roles isn’t likely to change with age.
“I still do movies that I think are going to be fun,” Jackson insists, his voice rising with his trademark brand of dramatic tension. “I do read scripts that are serious in tone that may or may not speak to some social issue, but I’m still that guy that likes to go to the movies and see myself in something kind of mindless and exciting. I don’t want to go to work every day and have to ruminate and deal with all the themes of human frailties all year long. I don’t make the conscious choice, like I have to do a big studio film about nothing, then I have to do a great independent film that’s kind of deep and has social relevance. I’m not one of those actors who’s sitting around thinking, ‘I’m older now and I need to mature.’”
That approach has served Jackson remarkably well over the last 15 years, as he has risen from a complete unknown to one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, making the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2002 and 2003 with earnings of $34 million and $30 million, respectively. But for Jackson, it was the opportunity to put his feet in cement at Hollywood’s historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre last year that hammered home his status as one of filmdom’s most beloved modern icons.
“I’m always saying that I’m not a movie star, I’m an actor. I just happen to be an actor who’s very popular, and I’ve made some films that made some money,” he says. “I don’t need an Academy Award to validate the things I’ve done. But the hands and feet ceremony is one of the things you watched when you were growing up, and the people doing that represented what Hollywood was at the time. I think ‘Hollywood stardom’ is more of an elite club than the Academy Award club, and it gave me a great sense of pride to know that there I was doing something that I watched James Cagney and other classic Hollywood icons do. It makes you admit to yourself, ‘okay, maybe I am a movie star.’”
Asked if career achievements like Grauman’s Forecourt to the Stars remind him of how far he’s come since graduating from Morehouse 35 years ago, Jackson denies any tendency for nostalgic reminiscence. “I didn’t reflect in that kind of way,” he insists. “You’re there putting your hands down, and you can see the names of other people all around as you’re doing it, and it’s kind of like, ‘Damn, I’m getting ready to be in the company of all these legends!’ There are only 230-something people there, and I think I’m maybe the seventh African-American to do it, so it is pretty important. I was just awed by the whole process.”
Perhaps it’s not too surprising that Jackson spends less time looking back over his career when you consider how much he has to look forward to in the very near future, with at least five films and an animated TV show slated to hit screens in 2007. In addition to the already-released Black Snake Moan and Home of the Brave, there’s this month’s 1408 (a Stephen King adaptation co-starring John Cusack), the Rod Luriedirected boxing drama Resurrecting the Champ, a Renny Harlin-directed crime thriller called Cleaner and the animated series “Afro Samurai.” Yet despite his remarkable success, this consummate workaholic seems driven by a healthy fear of finding himself back in his days as a struggling actor.
“There aren’t many acting opportunities for actors,” he says, without a single trace of irony. “I take the ones that are out there for me, and movies just happen to come one right behind the other, so I do them. I do have that healthy actor fear of never working again once my project is over. I just tend to go to work; I like it. And it’s actually not a hard job. Besides,” he adds with another hearty laugh, “my wife is still shopping!”