Samuel L. Jackson is Eugene Levy's Bitch



(image via memel)

Samuel L. Jackson can be an intimidating theatrical presence, as David Chappelle famously noted. He's one angry Negro, let me tell you. That unmitigated black rage is always lurking just beneath the surface. Even when he's playing a Jedi knight, the embodiment of all that's good and just in the galaxy, he does it in anger.

But who can blame him, huh? He got dragged by a motherfucking subway car! He got hooked on crack! He had to work with an unwashed Halle Berry on "Jungle Fever." What do you expect him to be: Mr. Congeniality?

Hardly. That's why this surprisingly candid interview with something called Moviehole moved us mightily. We saw a new side to Samuel. Sam Jackson gets in touch with his soft, feminine side while filming the Bitch scene in his new flic "The Man." Here (cue to: Afterschool Special theme music), a kinder, gentler Samuel L. Jackson:

"Moviehole: Speaking of difficult, was the bitch scene �

"Samuel L. Jackson: You know what, when I read it I knew how hilarious it would be and could be, and I know that audiences have this perception of me so that when it came time for me to have to say, �I�m his bitch,� it was kind of like, how do I do that to make it work? I kind of have to swallow it and not want to do it, and Eugene had things that he wanted to do in the middle of it, and out of nowhere he just kind of starts going, (slaps his face) �Who�s my bitch?� Whoa, wait a minute, hey, we didn�t rehearse that. And it kind of works, and once he did that I was like, �Well, you might as well smack me on the ass when I get in the car, and just cap it totally off.� It was working so well the camera guys, they were doing hand-held, and they had to keep doing it because the camera (was shaking) because they couldn�t stop laughing. It�s actually pretty cool, in fact my webmaster told me that that scene is actually on my website and hers, and we took 2 million hits in 40 hours, which is kind of cool."

Kind of. Of course, it doesn't last:

"Moviehole: How do you decide the look of the character � to have hair, and what kind of style and the whole scar thing?

"Samuel L. Jackson: My make-up artists and my hairdresser, wig-sticker-oner, Robert, I�ll read the script and we all kind of decide � we ask each other, �How does he look, how does he look, how does he look to you?� and we start talking about it. A lot of times, when we�re just out and we see hair styles, I�ll say to Robert, �Take a picture of that guy�s hair, because I like it and we may use that at some point.� ... So we just take pictures of varies and sundry hair styles. We like the fact Vann�s hair is a combination of a modern mini-dreadlock of this guy we worked with in South Africa not long ago. I liked it , it was kind of like, �I can use that at some point.� Occasionally, I make the decision that I want hair and I make the decision when I want none ... my agents and managers and sometimes my publicist always say, �We just love the way you look so much, look like you.� That�s boring to me, because I look like me every day. But they say, �You�re a movie star, look like a movie star,� and then people tell you on the street, �You look so much better in person than you do on screen.� What the hell is that? Is that a compliment?"

At this point in the interview, we imagine, furniture started flying, tape machines got busted, and the interviewer was taken to the hospital for severe facial abrasions and scalp damage. The moment passed. But for that one moment in time (The Corsair sighs), recorded for the ages, Samuel L. Jackson admitted to enjoying being Eugene Levy's sweet bitch.