Samuel L. Jackson is a Soul Man

Crave Online:   Sam, you know I love you.

Samuel L. Jackson:    Whoa, whoa, whoa. No proposals.

Crave Online:   No, but I have to tell you I’ve named my cat after you. She is Samantha L. Jackson.

Samuel L. Jackson: Okay, cool.

Crave Online: You would be proud, she’s a badass mother****r.

Samuel L. Jackson:    I like that.

Crave Online:   Was it fun being up on stage and really getting to perform in front of different crowds?

Samuel L. Jackson:    Yeah, it was fun. I loved Louis. Its amazing to be able to get into a performance mode, do a character that is that rich and been around. The kind of relationship that these guys have from being kids together, they have known each other so very well for that long, it’s a wonderful thing to put together and play. Then being able to sing and dance in live situations with extras that had never seen us do it before, that were like us having our own place, and having a captive audience. We had a good time doing that too. 

Crave Online:   Did you take to the dancing right away? Were you going in there with a little hesitation trying to figure out how to do the moves?

Samuel L. Jackson:    No, I was cool with it. I did musicals in college and theatre in New York. The dance is okay. Plus, most guys at some point in our lives fancy ourselves as one of the Temptations or one of the Pips. Stand in the mirror, sing, and all that stuff. It’s cool.

Crave Online:   What musicals did you do in college?

Samuel L. Jackson:    Wow. Dr. B.S. Black, Three Penny Opera, lots of them. 

Crave Online:   We heard that Bernie did an impression of you. Was he pretty right on?

Samuel L. Jackson:    I never saw it.

 

Crave Online: He didn’t do it in front of you?

Samuel L. Jackson:    Not to my knowledge, but I wouldn’t have recognized it.

Crave Online:   I was also wondering if "possum face motherf*cker" was an improv he came up with.

Samuel L. Jackson:    Yeah, along with "boy p*ssy." I was like, "What?" He was like, "I don’t like boy p*ssy." It killed us and I thought, "They are going to keep that? I guess this movie is not PG."

Crave Online:   As an actor who normally sticks with what's on the page, how do you react when he improvises like that?

Samuel L. Jackson:    As long as I know it’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen in a structured way even if it’s improv, then I know Bernie goes off the page. I know that we have to get through a specific section. We have to give certain amounts of information to an audience. So, if during rehearsal I can say to Bernie, "Okay, when you get through doing that just let me know you are done so I can say this line. Wink at me, do something, and let me know I can do this line. We got to get this amount of information. We got to let them know that we are going to do this, go here, and go there." He could do that. Then Malcolm [Lee] a lot of times just didn’t say cut. I just knew to shut up and let Bernie do what Bernie was going to do. They finally would get enough of it, laugh enough, and say cut.

Crave Online:   There is a part where you bark like a dog and Bernie looks like he’s about ready to laugh. Was that an improv?

Samuel L. Jackson:    He had never seen it, yeah. He had no idea I was going to do that. I was at that point where I was like, "Okay, Bernie is being funny.  I got to do something funny."

Crave Online:   Did you have a favorite moment behind the scenes with Bernie? 

Samuel L. Jackson:    No. We knew each other. We’ve known each other for a very long time. I’ve known Bernie for like 15 years or so, and we talk, hung out, so seeing him everyday was just part of the blessing of being able to do something. Finally finding something that worked for both of us. People have been trying it for a long time. So, no, nothing special, I was just glad he made it every day. 

Crave Online: What about Isaac Hayes?

Samuel L. Jackson: Bernie and I both knew Isaac in another kind of way. I’ve flown half way around the world with Isaac and just hung out with him, talked to him. But being able to do the music of Stax in one way, it’s very cool. Then to have Isaac there as a real representative of probably the most successful act that was ever on that label. Then being able to do an Isaac Hayes song in the middle of the film while he’s sitting there watch us do it? A little daunting for a minute but then you look at him and you see he’s going [okay]. So you think, "All right, we’re killing it."

Crave Online: Did Bernie know how good he was in the movie?

Samuel L. Jackson:    Probably. Aside from the fact that I told him everyday, and we talked about it everyday. The really sad thing, the saddest thing for me, it's interesting because I heard he was dead, Star Jones actually called us. I was in New York, and she said that Bernie had passed. The first thing I thought was, "Damn, Bernie ain’t going to get to see the movie." But, if you had to pick a vehicle and say, "This is the last movie you’ll ever get to do," an audience watches this film, it will be the Bernie Mac that they knew and loved. The Bernie Mac that came into their homes every week, the guy that was the King of Comedy, and made them pee on themselves when he was doing his act. He would sing, and dance, it had this dramatic arc that he’s responsible for, it runs through the movie. It’s a fitting last performance for somebody to remember him by. All the elements of the Bernie that people knew and loved are in this film.

 

Samuel L. Jackson:    He would have found a way to make a joke about it. If I weren’t here doing this thing he would have had something funny to say about it. He would have been poignant and then he would have been funny. He died one day, then the next day Isaac died, so somebody said to me "Do we need to get you to a safe house?"

 

Samuel L. Jackson:    I guess it was up and down. Everybody knew Bernie had been sick and had been in and out of the hospital. He’s also the kind of guy or performer that he’s one of the "show must go on" kinds of guys. By the time we got ready to do the film he was physically able to do the things we needed him to do in the film. There were days when he was a bit more robust than others, but he always showed up and did his job.

 

Samuel L. Jackson:    I can’t remember her name… [Laughs] I played golf all over Memphis, so there are lots of great golf courses there. There was a fried chicken place right around the corner from where I used to live. It always tasted like they fried the chicken in hot sauce. It was awesome. They gave you the chicken in a little brown bag and the bag would just be so greasy. It was like, "Yes!’"

 

Samuel L. Jackson:    Probably Carlos Santana and Bootsy Collins. 

 

Crave Online:   What would the name of the band be?

Samuel L. Jackson:    I have no idea.

 

Crave Online:   Wouldn't it be Badass Motherf*ckers?

Samuel L. Jackson:    I guess it could be,  just Motherf*ckah with an A-H. 

Crave Online: Louis is another badass character for you. Do you have a certain badass style you approach the character with?

Samuel L. Jackson:    No, not at all. I just know that the group dynamic lends itself to this thing when they grew up. Louis was the guy who was the hard ass in the group. He was the hardest drinker, the hardest druggie, and when something went wrong he was the guy who went there and did something about it, or raised the most hell about it. Floyd talked a lot of sh*t, but he didn’t do sh*t. Then when he goes to prison there is a certain thing that sets you up. You’ve been in prison for 30 years for robbing banks. That sets you up in another kind of way to come back out in the world. He found himself in another kind of way. He reads more now, got this phony prophet of his, Lao Zu. There is this thing he learned in prison. He is a singular individual that has a straight line. There are lines you don’t cross.

Crave Online:   Do you do badass that well because you are just badass yourself or are you drawn to those characters?

Samuel L. Jackson:    I just figure out a way to make the character like that, you know? I’ve never been a badass.