BEVERLY HILLS -- Samuel L. Jackson is a born talker.

While that's nothing new in the realm of movie stars, the man who has appeared in more than 50 feature films has another quality rarely seen in celebrities -- he's candid.

Ask him if he deserves more Oscar nominations than he's received, he'll say yes. Ask him if he's too old to keep making action flicks, he'll say no way.

Jackson's refreshing honesty and his silver tongue are traits he shares with on-screen alter-ego in the new action-drama The Negotiator, opening in theatres next week.

Jackson plays police hostage negotiator Danny Roman, forced to face off against another negotiator (played by Kevin Spacey) during a tension-filled game of cat-and-mouse on the 20th floor of a Chicago highrise.

Jackson's character tells it like it is, and when that doesn't work, he takes matters into his own hands.

Just like the man himself.

"He's very much like me in that I know all the rules to most of the things I do," says Jackson.

"And sometimes the rules do get in the way and you have to find a way to circumvent those rules to make things happen."

Jackson has been making things happen in his career since his first star turn in 1989's Do The Right Thing, one of four Spike Lee films he's appeared in.

His rise to stardom has been swift and sure since then, including an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a philosophizing hitman in 1994's Pulp Fiction.

Always a bridesmaid but never a bride, Jackson receives regular critical praise for his roles, yet Pulp Fiction has been his only Oscar nomination to date. (He lost out to Martin Landau's performance in Ed Wood.)

Does he shrug this off, saying the Academy and its voters know best? Of course not.

"In a fair world, I guess I'd have three or four Academy Awards," he says.

"Jungle Fever, A Time to Kill, Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction.... But, you know, it's not a fair world. I'll just keep working."

That work includes his upcoming role in The Red Violin, written by and co-starring Canadian auteur Don McKellar.

Jackson will also be seen next year in what can safely be called the biggest movie event of 1999: The first prequel to Star Wars.

Other than admitting he plays a Jedi master named Mace-Wandu, he refuses to offer up any tidbits on the storyline, which Star Wars creator George Lucas has been fanatically guarding.

"I don't have a clue what that movie's about," says Jackson, a longtime fan of the Star Wars films. "I saw the six pages (of the script) I'm in and I don't know what happens before or after that."

But what does he do in the movie?

"Getting paid!" he says with a laugh.


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