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 Samuel L. Jackson as The Champ, a fallen boxing legend who is badly in need of resurrection. |
BEVERLY HILLS -- Samuel L. Jackson works about as much as a certain Rush Hour star lazes around.
Which is to say, all the time.
"(I'm going to) take three years off and what, be Chris Tucker?" Jackson says, sounding incredulous at the prospect of time off. "You know, Chris made $500 million on the Rush Hour movies. I've got bills to pay. I can't do that."
Jackson's kidding, of course -- about both Tucker's net worth (which, actually, is short of the half-billion-dollar mark, until Rush Hour 4 in 2012, anyway) and his own dire financial straits.
About reducing his workload, though, Jackson is perfectly straight-faced.
"I don't want to take even six months off. That's crazy," Jackson was saying while unwinding after a day of interviews. "When people create, you feel the need to do it. It's like being a painter and then saying you're not going to paint for three years."
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Thus, since the beginning of 2006, the 58-year-old Oscar nominee has acted in the racial drama Freedomland; the much-blogged-about Snakes on a Plane; the Sundance favourite Black Snake Moan; the scantily-released war drama Home of the Brave; and the hit supernatural thriller 1408.
Beginning Friday, he stars opposite Josh Hartnett in the boxing-and-journalism-themed drama Resurrecting the Champ. In it, Jackson portrays a scraggly, not-quite-there former boxing champion now subsisting on the inner-city streets of Denver when he is discovered by an ambitious sports reporter (Josh Hartnett).
CAST
The cast includes Cold Case's Kathryn Morris as Hartnett's wife and colleague, Alan Alda as his editor and Teri Hatcher, in a brief turn, as a cutthroat television executive. If you hadn't already guessed, there are no mother----ing snakes on no mother----ing planes -- or even the slightest whiff of the geek-and-grindhouse genres for which Jackson has shown such an affection and affinity.
"It's just a different kind of story," he says. "I don't treat one less than the other. They all deserve a measure of honesty and the best I can give them. I like a good film of any genre."
Champ unquestionably gives Jackson much more to do than spout four-lettered quips or tangle with cheese-ball effects. And he was impressed enough with the script, director Rod Lurie says, that he signed on after only a weekend to mull the job offer. "Usually it takes movie stars forever (to sign on)."
Once onboard, Jackson and his assistants started manufacturing the character's distinctive physical appearance.
Explains Jackson: "I read the script, and if the character is interesting enough, I give the script to my make up artist and my hairdresser and then we come back together. We come up with this amalgam of who we think he is. Once we got the physicality down, then it was all cool."
His dentist designed Champ's teeth, while Jackson drew inspiration from his grandfather for the character's haggard whisper of a voice.
"My grandfather's voice was always so quiet, you'd have to lean forward and ask, 'What did you say?' I wanted people to lean in toward Champ."
Says Lurie: "Sam looks different in every movie. It's a challenge he takes on."
Even if it's one that frustrates his agents and managers.
"They say, 'Sam you're a movie star. We want to see you.' I see myself in the mirror every day. I know what I look like," he says.
"They think people want to see the movie star. I think people pay to see characters."
SAMUEL L. JACKSON FILE
BORN: Dec. 21, 1948 in Washington, D.C.
MARRIED: To LaTanya Richardson, in 1980. Daughter Zoe born in 1982.
BIG BREAK: As a drug addict in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever. His first role after going through rehab for a drug addiction.
STAR-MAKING TURN: As Jules (above), the Bible-spouting hitman in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
MOST MEMORABLE LINE: Something about wanting these snakes off this plane.
MARVEL-MAN: Jackson permitted Marvel Comics to use his likeness when it was redesigning cigar-chomping SHIELD agent Nick Fury for its Ultimate comics line. Word has it Jackson will cameo in next summer's Iron Man movie as Fury, establishing the groundwork for possible further Fury adventures on-screen. Jackson, though, issues a stern non-denial denial. "I'm doing Iron Man? More IMDB stuff? Iron Man's done, isn't it? When they were shooting Iron Man I was in Louisiana doing The Cleaner."