Samuel L. Jackson does not mince his words. At all. After spending 20 minutes in a room with the actor, who reunites with “Pulp Fiction” director Quentin Tarantino in this month’s “Django Unchained,” I now know exactly how he feels about the lack of awards recognition (so far) for his role in the movie, about M. Night Shyamalan’s decision not to make a sequel to Jackson’s 2000 supernatural thriller “Unbreakable,” about the criticism he endured after attacking movie reviewer A.O. Scott of The New York Times over Twitter, and a whole lot more besides.
In “Django Unchained.” Jackson plays Stephen, the “Dick Cheney,” as he puts it, of a slavery-era plantation owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Stephen is a house slave, but, this being a Samuel L. Jackson character, he’s not exactly subservient. The night before we spoke, Jackson had appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and stirred up some controversy by uttering at least one (or maybe two) un-bleeped vulgarity. And by the time we met, he’d done a full day of interviews — I was his last — so it’s fair to assume that he was very tired.
Samuel L. Jackson may be the most energetic tired person I’ve ever met.
[Samuel L. Jackson] Is this the light at the end of this tunnel?
[Mike Ryan] Yes. That’s me. At least I hope. Also, you’ve had an interesting 24 hours …
Sorta have.
I agree with your tweet that there was obviously a timing issue that seemed off during your appearance on “SNL.”
Um, yeah.
It made for good television.
I was expecting Kenan to … “bullshhhh.” I guess I could have done it myself. But I thought he was going to talk over me.
And it didn’t sound like you pronounced the “k” [at the end of the other expletive].
No.
It was obvious that the timing was off.
[Smiles] I’m pretty good with that.
I enjoyed you quite a bit in this movie.
Thank you.
You’ve had to have heard some whispers that you “steal” the movie.
Apparently not, because the Golden Globes didn’t think so. I like the fact that people like it…
Read More: Mike Ryan, huffingtonpost.com
