Samuel L. Jackson - Premiere Magazine

WITH YOUR POST-APARTHEID DRAMA, IN MY COUNTRY, OPENING ON THE HEELS OF COACH CARTER, SOON TO BE FOLLOWED BY XXX: STATE OF THE UNION AND STAR WARS: EPISODE III, IT SEEMS THAT IT’S A SAM JACKSON WORLD AND WE’RE ALL JUST LIVING IN IT.
Yep, it’s back to back to back to back!

NO WONDER YOU’VE OVERTAKEN HARRISON FORD AS THE HIGHEST-GROSSING ACTOR OF ALL TIME.
With three billion, three hundred million something, something, something in grosses, no one will ever catch me again. Well, unless Harrison’s [upcoming] Indiana Jones movie makes a lot of money. But they’ll just put me in that, too, and I’ll keep up. (laughs)

AND TO THINK THAT AS AN UNDERGRAD AT ATLANTA’S MOREHOUSE COLLEGE, YOU ONLY GOT INTO ACTING BECAUSE OF THE—
—Sex, drugs and cheap thrills. Yep.

WHICH SERVED YOU WELL WHEN, TWO WEEKS OUT OF

REHAB, YOU BEGAN YOUR BREAKTHROUGH ROLE AS A CRACKHEAD IN 1991’S JUNGLE FEVER. THE REHAB FOLKS DIDN’T WANT YOU TO TAKE THAT GIG, DID THEY?
Totally against it. They said that being around pipes and lighters was going to trigger all my old feelings. I said, “There’s no way that’s going to happen if for no other reason than that I never want to see you motherfuckers again!” The focus of that movie was interracial relationships; I was just the side story, but later on everybody went, “I think the whole movie should have been about YOU.” (laughs)

AS A STAR OF JUNGLE FEVER, THEN, IS IT EVER AN ISSUE TO DO LOVE SCENES WITH WHITE WOMEN, SUCH AS JULIETTE BINOCHE IN IN MY COUNTRY?
No. And, c’mon, you don’t pass up the chance to be romantically involved with Juliette Binoche. Ever since I saw Damage, I’ve been sitting at home, like [starts panting with his tongue out]….

IN IN MY COUNTRY, YOUR CHARACTER SAYS, “IF YOU’RE BLACK IN AMERICA, EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE YOU’RE MADE TO FEEL LIKE YOU DON’T BELONG.” DO YOU EVER FEEL THAT WAY IN HOLYWOOD?
Only because I think I should be paid more. Like, I’ll be at a meeting where I want ten million dollars, and they’ll say, “We only got five,” and I’m going, “You motherfuckers are taking advantage of me!” But then I’ll get in my car and go, “Fuck it—I get to work ten weeks for five million dollars? Poor thing.” (laughs)

SO SAD. OKAY, WHAT LINE DO FANS ON THE STREET YELL AT YOU THE MOST?
“What do you call a quarter pounder with cheese in Paris?” And me being me, I always start doing the scene and say, “I don’t know. What?” Most people go, “Come on, you know,” so, I’m, like, (witheringly) “If you were really a Pulp Fiction fan, you’d know that I just started to act with you.” (laughs) People also say that line, “I’m always frank and earnest with women: In New York, I’m Frank and in Chicago I’m Ernest” from The Long Kiss Goodnight. Mitch from that movie is one of my favorite characters.

MINE, TOO, THOUGH THAT FILM NOT WAS NOT A BIG HIT.
No, because it was prior to the time that women were empowered onscreen, like Uma and Charlie’s Angels and Lara Croft. But Geena [Davis] is so much tougher than all of them, and Long Kiss is a cult favorite of women all over the world because of that.

DON’T FORGET PAM GRIER, YOUR COSTAR FROM JACKIE BROWN.
Oh my God, the first time we were rehearsing that scene where I grab Pam around the neck and choke her and she points a gun at my crotch, I was like, “This is off the hook: I’m choking Coffy, and she’s touching my genitals!” See, we didn’t have guns in rehearsal and she used her finger. I thought, “This is gonna be GOOD.”

AND IT WAS. SO IS IT TRUE THAT YOU’LL ONLY DO MOVIES YOU’D PAY TO SEE?
Definitely. And I always do—I LOVE me onscreen!

FUNNY, MOST ACTORS SAY THEY HATE THEMSELVES ONSCREEN.
They lie.