20 Questions: Samuel L. Jackson

Remember Samuel L. Jackson in "Ragtime," "Sea of Love," "Coming to America," "Do the Right Thing," "Mo' Better Blues," "Jungle Fever," "Goodfellas," "Eddie Murphy Raw," "White Sands," "School Daze," "Patriot Games," "Juice," "Amos and Andrew," "True Romance" and "Jurassic Park"? We didn't think so. Jackson likes it that way. Disappearing into a character is a favorite pastime. Jackson's romance with anonymity is over, though. His turn in "Pulp Fiction," as Jules, the Bible-quoting hit man who experiences a sign from God, is as unforgettable as the character's Jheri Curl hairstyle. Next, he will appear in "Losing Isaiah" with Jessica Lange, in "Kiss of Death" with David Caruso and Nicolas Cage and in "Die Hard With a Vengeance." Contributing Editor David Rensin spoke with Jackson while the actor was wrapping up production on "Die Hard." Says Rensin, "Jackson not only loves to act, he needs to. He's been known to take just about any role that comes his way. 'I do it because actors act and waiters wait,' Jackson said. 'A producer told me a long time ago that there's something very right about actors who work and something very wrong about those who don't.' Now all he needs to do is find time for more golf."

1.

[Q] Playboy: You carried a mysterious briefcase for much of Pulp Fiction. What was inside?

[A] Jackson: My character, Jules, never looked in. Marcellus wanted it, he sent me to get it, and that's all. If he'd told me to look in it and make sure something was there, I would have. Vincent [John Travolta] did that. I asked him if he was satisfied and he said yeah. [Pauses] John did ask Quentin Tarantino exactly what was supposed to be inside and Quentin said, "Whatever you want it to be." So I assumed it was something that, when people looked at it, seemed like the most beautiful thing they had ever seen or their greatest desire. When I looked inside, between scenes, I saw two lights and some batteries. What I would have wanted to see are the next ten films I'm going to do and hope that they're all as good as Pulp Fiction.

2.

[Q] Playboy: What's in your shoulder bag?

[A] Jackson: [Rummages inside] A three-ring binder for my script. Lots of pens and pencils. The keys to my house. A Swiss Army knife. Three pairs of glasses--reading glasses, distance glasses, sunglasses. Call sheets. Some 8 x 10s of me that I sign for people when they ask for a picture. And a couple of comic books. Right now, it's The Return of the Mask.

3.

[Q] Playboy: How would life be better if it were more like the comics? Could we use a few superheroes?

[A] Jackson: Comics are an outlet, an escape. They're visually stimulating. It doesn't take a lot of intellect to figure out who's doing what to whom. But life wouldn't be so fulfilling if it were like the comics. I like not knowing exactly what's going to happen every day. I like trying to solve some of my own little dilemmas or helping other people solve theirs. Also, the world in a lot of comic books seems to be closed, and there aren't many different types of people. They're either superheroes or good or bad people. There's little middle ground. Even so, the world would be an interesting place if there were superheroes. Unfortunately, they always seem to be tearing up a bunch of shit.

4.

[Q] Playboy: In Pulp Fiction you worked yourself up to kill with a passage from Ezekiel. What other Bible verse do you know and when do you use it?

[A] Jackson: Well, everybody knows "Jesus wept"--that's the shortest verse in the Bible. It came in handy when the Sunday school teacher suddenly said, "OK, I want everybody to recite a Bible verse." But because John 3:16 and "Jesus wept" were always taken before the teacher got to me, I memorized this odd passage: "The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but can't tell whither it goeth or whither it cometh, for so is everyone who is born of the spirit." I knew nobody would say that.

5.

[Q] Playboy: Describe the proper way to give a woman a foot massage. Spare no details.

[A] Jackson: [Deep breath] Start with the large toe. Gently massage the underside of it by pressing down on the nail, gently rubbing it between thumb and forefinger. Move on to the space between the big toe and the next toe. Gently press that and rub it between your thumb and forefinger, adding your other hand and holding on to the big toe and rolling it gently while progressing down between each toe, pulling forward with a gentle pressing motion through each joint until you reach the nail, where you press really hard. Continue to massage the toes with your left hand while you press on the ball of the foot. Grab it with all four fingers, with the thumb on top of the foot, and press and roll slowly. Move back toward the arch, grab it with the forefinger and pull through the arch to the ball of the foot slowly, six, seven times. Then you start to massage the arch of the foot, moving slowly across to the outside of the foot. You take your hand from the toes and grab the heel and start to rotate it while you're still massaging the arch, pulling up toward the ball of the foot, gently pulling on the long toe as you rotate that foot. Then you take the heel, squeeze it with your hand and rub one hand along the outside, one hand along the inside, gently squeezing and pulling forward, going back to those toes and pressing them up, then pushing them down, pressing them all up, pushing them down. Then gently massage them again, moving back toward the ball of the foot, pressing all the way back to the heel, gently grabbing the Achilles tendon and squeezing it down into the heel and pulling forward while rotating the foot in your hand. [Smiles] I've got my technique down pat.

6.

[Q] Playboy: You and Travolta had great rambling philosophical conversations in Pulp Fiction. What did you talk about at length off camera? Who's more philosophical?

[A] Jackson: John. He has this whole spiritual thing going on. I was always bull-shitting, trying to find out Hollywood dirt and things he was privy to. John is a walking encyclopedia of people. He's got funny (continued on page 132)Samuel L. Jackson(continued from page 121) anecdotes about everybody. He would tell those for a little while, then he'd start doing this spiritual thing about how grateful he was to be in his position, how it was so heartwarming. He uses words like heartwarming and love a lot. That's funny to me.

7.

[Q] Playboy: You've been good in so many films that stardom is just around the corner. Have you gotten any good advice about the celebrity lifestyle from your more famous co-stars?

[A] Jackson: I asked Travolta and Bruce Willis how they deal with the celebrity thing. I said, "How do you deal with the fact that you can't go anywhere? And people who don't know who the fuck you are wanting to get in your space?" I can still ride the subway in New York. People don't bother me. At most, they come up to me and say, "I like your work." They don't want to tear off my clothes or become part of my life. But if Denzel Washington or Wesley Snipes were to walk down the street, there'd be 30 women following them. John and Bruce told me that I have this remarkable ability to remain normal and that I should hold on to that for as long as I can, because people will try to take it away from me and start digging into my life in ways that have nothing to do with what I do and who I am. They said I have to maintain a strong sense of who I am so I won't lose sight of my goals.

8.

[Q] Playboy: Although Snipes and Washington have been busy with the ladies on-screen, black men still don't get many opportunities to play the romantic lead. Imagine for us your turn. What are you saving for your bedroom moment?

[A] Jackson: That bedroom look: eye contact that lets a woman know, "I'm really with you and I love you." The soft voice that goes along with it. And my ability to unhook a bra with one hand.

9.

[Q] Playboy: Your hair never seems to be the same in any two movies. Recall the hair-care products in your life that have come and gone.

[A] Jackson: When I was a young child my mom and my grandmother put Royal Crown on my head. It's like Vaseline that has a fragrance. It was in a round red cardboard can with a tin top and an embossed gold crown. As I got older, I used Vitalis because I related really well to the TV commercial. But it had so much alcohol in it that it just made my hair dry and brittle. Next, I entered the Brylcreem phase. It was oily enough and gave me a sheen, but it didn't press my hair down--to make the waves that I liked. So I moved up to a product that was a really black thing that Richard Roundtree was the model for: Duke--a heavy, oily cream that made your hair really slick and happening. You put a stocking cap on and it made your hair lay down really cool. At one point in college when I thought I was slick and I was out there in the street trying to be a hustler, I had my hair relaxed. Then I had an Afro, so I used Afrosheen. I used Vitapointe when I started to lose my hair because I was trying to feed it and make it really healthy. Then I started putting healthy stuff on it like jojoba and henna. I was trying to give my hair some verve. I was also saying, "Please don't leave yet." Didn't work. My grandfather is as bald as an eight ball, so I knew it was going to come.

10.

[Q] Playboy: While in college at More-house you took part in locking the trustees in the administration building and got kicked out of school for a while. What did you do after that?

[A] Jackson: I went to Los Angeles and was a social worker for the county. I learned how to take care of myself a little better. I learned a lot about women--I had a 39-year-old girlfriend when I was 19, and she taught me a lot. I learned that I wanted to be back in school [laughs] and not in the real world, working. And I found out that I wanted to be an actor.

11.

[Q] Playboy: Most young black filmmakers make movies about inner-city life. Why such a limited venue? Is this what black people want to see? Is this what whites should see?

[A] Jackson: That's the type of story those filmmakers know. They know how to tell it. They grab hold of it in a whole different way and it's what they're passionate about. Some also know that those are the films that studios buy. I don't know if they'll be able to tell it better than the Hughes brothers did with Menace II Society. When we saw it the first time, my wife actually thought it was irresponsible filmmaking. She was incensed by its rawness. To her, it was almost like a how-to movie, and it was frightening. It not only frightens the Caucasian audiences, it also frightens middle-class black audiences because it shows the dangers that kids face daily. Menace put a palpable fear into viewers about the predators in our midst. You didn't understand why they were predators, only that they had lost all sense of human decency and value. The thing is, those predators are real. The Hughes brothers didn't make them up.

12.

[Q] Playboy: Rappers seem to have invaded actors' turf. Should they stick to their own?

[A] Jackson: Yeah, if they can't act. Conveying ideas and emotion takes some training, some sensitivity. That doesn't come just because you're famous and people need your name to put butts in seats, à la Posse or, from what I understand, Black Panthers. I've turned down films because they were primarily rapper-based and needed me to add some kind of actor cachet to them. I can't see validating some rappers' acting careers when I have friends who can act who can't get jobs because they're not household names. At some point, producers are going to realize that audiences have become a lot more sophisticated. You can get people into the theaters the first weekend because you have Ice Box, Ice Tray and Ice Pick in your movie. But by the second week, word is going to be out that the movie ain't shit and it'll be relegated to video. Acting deserves a lot more respect than it gets. There are no naturals in this business. You can fake it for a while, but the audience catches on.

13.

[Q] Playboy: Once and for always: Is race an issue in the O.J. Simpson case?

[A] Jackson: No. We're just talking about murder here. We're not talking about some guy who was yelling racial epithets in the middle of a rampage, or somebody who doesn't like white people. He was married to one, and most of his dates were Caucasian. The issues are more emotion-based. He's not being prosecuted because he's a black man who rose too high and stepped out of his class. That's just another defense ploy.

14.

[Q] Playboy: Shaft is one of your favorite movies. Are you still using catchphrases from the film?

[A] Jackson: It's amazing that you would ask that, because there's one that we use on the set every day. I'm always telling one assistant here that he's a tool of the Man. I'm always telling him, "When the Man say be there, you be there, waiting." And occasionally we talk about the guy who got tossed out the window, Bandini Brown. He had the great catchphrases in Shaft. "They just threw my man Leroy out the goddamn window. That's some cold shit, Shaft." We also hum the theme song a lot.

15.

[Q] Playboy: Who ranks highest on the macho meter: Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, Quentin Tarantino or Harvey Keitel?

[A] Jackson: That's a good group. It's between Harvey and Bruce, but I've spent more time with Bruce than I have with Harvey. Still, I'd say Harvey, because he hangs out with a different kind of crowd. Bruce has this whole guy thing going on that's a totally regular-guy kind of thing to me. But Harvey has this persona that can make you not walk into his space. He doesn't need guys around him to keep you out, either.

16.

[Q] Playboy: You've died on-screen enough to be an expert. Describe the most satisfying passage you've had and the departure you can't wait to perform.

[A] Jackson: The most satisfying death I had was in Dead Man Out, with Rubén Blades and Danny Glover. I actually died in the gas chamber. I got to walk the last mile in a Canadian prison. I sat in a real gas chamber. It was a happening thing. It was also weird. One death I haven't done is as a bullet-riddled body falling off a high building through a green-house roof into a shallow pool so that when I hit, the blood just spreads rapidly through the water.

17.

[Q] Playboy: In Pulp Fiction your character retired as a hit man because of a supposed sign from God. Have you ever received a sign in real life that changed the way you lived?

[A] Jackson: There was a role I originated in a play, and I didn't get it when it actually went to Broadway. The actor who did it got nominated for a Tony, and I figured that would have been my shot at making it had I been in the right position or in the right frame of mind. That's why I don't drink or get high anymore. I was getting blind and I was blaming all kinds of things on my not being successful. When I stopped, it turned my life around.

18.

[Q] Playboy: What's tougher, acting in films or on the stage?

[A] Jackson: Acting for a camera is harder for me because there is no sharing of energy. You're just giving--you're not receiving anything. There's nothing to drive you or motivate you. When you're cooking onstage, the audience is part of it. It's a healthy, sharing experience. When you're doing a film, you're doing stuff over and over again, and sometimes--or most of the time--it has nothing to do with what you're doing as a performer. That's what's so cool about Quentin Tarantino. He has found this healthy marriage of theater and cinema, and he actually allows actors to act. And in order to act, a lot of times you need to talk. You need to give information to viewers about who you are, the things you are trying to accomplish and how you're going to accomplish them. In most films, if you talk for 15 minutes you've talked a whole lot.

19.

[Q] Playboy: Aside from the body and blood in the back of your car in Pulp Fiction, what's the last mess you made that you couldn't clean up?

[A] Jackson: I was painting something in the house and I slipped on the ladder and knocked over a whole bucket of paint--onto some carpet, into the clothes closet. Oh man, I fucked up. It was ugly. It was very ugly. And it was enamel.

20.

[Q] Playboy: Describe the perfect on-location hotel room.

[A] Jackson: It would have to be in a really great tropical place, like Kuala Lumpur or Thailand. Orchids everywhere. A big marble bathroom that has showerheads coming from all directions--from the walls, the ceiling, the floor. A huge bed. A nice carpet that I can practice my putting on. A great balcony view of the ocean. A golf course nearby. And one of the best restaurants in the world, serving Japanese food and my mom's home cooking. I guess that means my mom would have to be working there in the kitchen.

You didn't understand why they were predators, only that they had lost all sense of decency and value.