Crave Online: Is the trick to say threatening things in a normal way or normal things in a threatening way?
Samuel L. Jackson: I'm not sure what you mean. What you talking about Willis?
Crave Online: The way Abel threatens people.
Samuel L. Jackson: Does he? Really? I think Abel has a definite point of view that he's not afraid to express.
Crave Online: See, the way you say that sounds kind of threatening.
Samuel L. Jackson: That's the way it happens. Abel says what's on his mind. He has a real opinion about how he wants the world to be and what he thinks should be going on around him and in his neighborhood. He has a definite idea about how he wants to raise his kids. What he wants them to be in influenced by and he's not afraid to express that opinion and he's not afraid to do things to make the world his way.
Crave Online: Did you play him as the villain?
Samuel L. Jackson: I don't know if he's a villain. I guarantee there are a couple of people sitting there, watching the movie who go, "Okay. I get that. I'm with him."
Crave Online: How much input did you have in the script and this character?
Samuel L. Jackson: We worked on it a bit. I guess in the early versions of the script he was just an out and out bully kind of guy. He's kind of a crazed guy. [Writer/director] Neil [Labute] and I talked about it. I wanted audiences to actually have a chance to make a choice between do you want to be on this guy's side or do you want to be on this guy's side? Is it okay if this guy smokes and bumps cigarettes in his yard or is it okay if he has this light on his house because there are bad people that live behind the house and they just happen to move in and it comes on when there is movement? Is it okay for his friends to look down on him because he's a cop? Is it okay for him to feel that way? Is it okay for them to make love in their pool when they know there are kids next door who may or may not see them? So there all these questions about who he is and what he does. Is it Okay for him to use informants but to tell that informant, "Those are little girls. I don't want to see you with little girls anymore. Those are underage girls." He has a moral compass it just kind of goes another way. Those are things we kind of refined so Abel did have raison d'etre of some sort that made sense to people watching it.
Crave Online: Were you familiar with Neil's work before you signed on?
Samuel L. Jackson: I'm familiar with his work. I know his plays more than I know his movies.
Crave Online: So were you worried about any misogynistic undertones?
Samuel L. Jackson: Misogynist to you, okay guy for me. It's a guy I might like to hang out with, misogynist to you. One of my boys.
Crave Online: That's what people usually say about Labute's work.
Samuel L. Jackson: I'm never concerned about stuff like that. I just look at the character and if I like him I start figuring out ways to make his point of view mine or figure out a backstory that allows me to get there and be in that place and let me be comfortable in it. I didn't care that much about what Neil's reputation was writing that stuff because he's a very bright guy and open to suggestions so we worked on the dialogue, we worked on the characters development. My biggest concern with directors on movies is that when they get to work they are as prepared as I am because I have a plan of attack day to day. Hopefully, they have a shot list and I know what the shot list is. I know how much time we're going to spend doing this that and the other. Or if something is wrong they can express it so that we can get past it and move on to the next thing. He's very efficient because we were in a tight kind of zone.
We were shooting in Walnut, which I'd never heard of until we started shooting. As you notice, most of this movie is at night. So I would get in the car at 3:30 and I'd be in rush hour going from Beverly Hills to Walnut, so I'd be in a car from 1-1/2 to 2 hours trying to get to work. Then when we'd finish, when light started coming up, we'd be in rush hour coming back into town. So I was spending four hours a day in cars, just going back and forth to work.
Crave Online: That must have filled you with road rage.
Samuel L. Jackson: I'm not driving. I'm just in the car sleeping if I can get my driver to shut up.
Crave Online: Do you like to rehearse before you get to set?
Samuel L. Jackson: You kind of have to do one rehearsal so the camera knows what you're going to do. We had done some rehearsal prior to even starting shooting so we could work on the dialogue and how some of the stuff was going to be blocked. But you do one camera rehearsal.
Crave Online: How did you feel about keeping it PG-13?
Samuel L. Jackson: What's the point? Even the PG-13 kids sneak into the good movies. The don't want to see a PG-13 movie. I wouldn't.
Crave Online: You used to say you liked playing cops and robbers in movie because it was like when you were a kid except that they have special effects to make the bullets hit. Do you still get that thrill?
Samuel L. Jackson: Yep. This is more an adult movie. I'm not shooting and running and jumping stuff until right at the end of the movie. But it's kind of interesting because I had back surgery I guess maybe three weeks before we started shooting. So, the doctor kept telling me when I could actually do the big fight scene. It was kind of cool when I actually found out I could do it. "Can I do the fight scene yet?" "Not yet. No bending. No falling." By the time we got to it, I was glad to know I was well enough to do it. So it was cool.
Crave Online: What insight have you gained about police by playing cops?
Samuel L. Jackson: It happens. I don't know how many cops I've played. If you do enough movies you're going to play cops a lot. You play cops and you play bad guys. A lot of stories are about bad guys vs. good guys. I've been trained by the LAPD, the SWAT team, the Secret Service, FBI, CIA, Navy Seals, the Marines, Army, Navy. So I have a lot of gun training and a lot of law enforcement training. It's been kind of cool being able to do all that stuff and fire live weapons and see if you're able to use them, and kind of watch police procedure and talk to cops about what they really do and what they really don't do.
Crave Online: What do they do?
Samuel L. Jackson: Take care of each other. Protect and serve.
Crave Online: You did The Spirit with first-time solo director Frank Miller. How did he do?
Samuel L. Jackson: It's cool. Frank was very egoless in terms of what we were doing on The Spirit. [His] first film, I've done like 113 movies. So, occasionally I would say, "Hey Frank, do you mind if I do...?" "Sure, go ahead. Try it." He was okay with that. The cinematographer was going, "Yeah, that's a good idea. Mind if we do it this way rather than that way?" So he's very open to things we wanted to do. Having a playwright be a director, I've only had that one other time. That was on Changing Lanes, because Roger Michell directed plays also. It's great to have people who are more concerned about character and story than guys who are sitting there looking at a monitor worrying about the composition of the shot, because that's what the majority of young directors are doing. How can we dazzle the people with our camerawork? To me the story is important so the things I bring to a film are my character development, a little backstory, honesty, some reality and somebody that's willing to pay more attention to what we're doing in terms of getting information to the audience and having them pay attention to us as the actors aside from looking at this really slick camera move. It's very important to us as performers.
Crave Online: Do you see a more optimistic Frank Miller, because he was disillusioned after Robocop II?
Samuel L. Jackson: I'm sure he is until you guys finish with him. We'll see what happens. Frank's made the film that he wanted to make. Hopefully, it will be that. The film comes out and people will talk about it and either he'll be thick-skinned or bruised by it. Even happens to seasoned directors. Happened to Quentin. You guys made Quentin go away and go, "Oh! Oh!"
Crave Online: At Comic Con it looked very far out there.
Samuel L. Jackson: It's a cartoon. The movie is a cartoon to me. I don't know what anybody else is gonna think it is, but to me it's a cartoon. We do Wile E. Coyote kind of stuff. I hit him in the head with toilets. We've got wrenches that are as big as this room. Clang! I hit him with the wrench and he gets up. We're both pretty much indestructible and I created him so I know he's indestructible and I use the stuff on myself, made myself indestructible. We're the only two people that are like that, so we do outrageous things to each other. Even when I get shot I kind of shake bullets out of my head. It's a cartoon. It's so kind of outrageous and crazy and over the top. I get to wear all these outrageous costumes. I mean, come on, I dress up like a Nazi in this movie. I have lightning bolt eyebrows. It's fun!
Crave Online: How much will you be involved in Iron Man II?
Samuel L. Jackson: You know I'm in it? I haven't seen anything. I just hope they call when they do it. Stranger things have happened.
Crave Online: Are you trying to get your place in Inglorious Bastards?
Samuel L. Jackson: He's gone already. I talked to him the day he was leaving for Bavaria to start shooting. We had a short discussion. There is only one black guy in the movie and he's French. Well, okay let me give you the names of the French black actors I know. I gave him a list of guys he should call and he was going to do that. He said, "I'll see you when I get back." No more black guys in the movie.
Crave Online: What's going on with Afro-Samurai?
Samuel L. Jackson: The second season is pretty much done. I just did the finishing voiceover stuff on it last week. The videogame is pretty much done. I finished the voice work on that. Hopefully, everything will be launching in January. I actually just got the first draft of the live action Afro Samurai script. So hopefully we'll get that up and running.
