Samuel L. Jackson on Tarantino, Pulp Fiction and acting
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00:00It wasn't until my junior year in college, when I took a public speaking course, and
00:15once again the professor teaching the class was directing production of Three Penny Opera,
00:20and he didn't have enough guy.
00:22And he said he'd give us extra credit for that particular course if we got in to play.
00:27So I got in to play, and I haven't stopped doing it since.
00:32That was the one time that I finally realized that I found something that made me want to
00:37get up every day and go to class.
00:39I wanted to get up and go to my acting class and go to my set construction class and be
00:43in the theater and be around those creative people.
00:46And it gave me a better feeling than I had forcing myself to get up and go look at science
00:51problems and I was trying to do biology or whatever.
00:58No, I didn't realize.
01:01The first time I realized Pulp Fiction had international appeal.
01:04Bruce and I were shooting Die Hard when Pulp Fiction came out.
01:08So when it was time to go to Canada, we were in New York shooting Die Hard, so I got on
01:13a plane with Bruce and we flew to Canada.
01:16And I'm sitting there in the palette watching the film, and the film's playing beautifully.
01:22People are loving this movie.
01:24And I realized, wow, they're actually reading the movie.
01:28Half the people in here don't speak English.
01:31They're reading it and they're getting it.
01:33And that was when Bruce elbowed me in the door.
01:38This is it.
01:43The beauty of working for Quentin is that because of my theatrical background, and he
01:51respects that, he understands the value of rehearsal.
01:54So we rehearsed Pulp Fiction at least a month before we started shooting.
02:00The same thing with Jackie Brown.
02:03The same thing with April 8th.
02:06The same thing with Django Unchained.
02:09At one point we were in a studio lot, in a stagecoach, doing the stagecoach scenes in
02:17April 8th.
02:18And they built minis on a soundstage so we could rehearse everything we needed to do
02:22in there.
02:23So we got to work.
02:24If something wasn't happening in a certain place, we could do something else because
02:28we knew what we were going to do.
02:30So he understands the value of rehearsal and being able to fix the dialogue, being able
02:35to fix the blocking, having the DP there so they can plot shots.
02:39So when we get to work, we work very efficiently.
02:44But Quentin also has the most creative film set that I've ever been on.
02:54Number one, nothing with an on-off switch other than the camera is on set.
03:01There are no phones, there are no iPads, there's nothing.
03:04So when he says cut, people are going to start checking their emails and people talk to each
03:09other.
03:10You talk about the things you just did or you talk to the crew members who are doing
03:14stuff about what they're doing or the sound guy pumps music into the set because Quentin
03:20loves music.
03:21So there's all kinds of music that comes up between shots.
03:24It could be anything from opera to James Brown.
03:29So we dance a lot.
03:31We sing a lot.
03:32Quentin also tells stories a lot.
03:36He is the most encyclopedic cinematic mind I've ever encountered.
03:49I choose films that are entertaining because I think we're entertainers.
03:54I think documentarians are the people who should chronicle our history or things that
04:01happen right now and those films serve another purpose.
04:05So for a person like me, I don't mind telling a message or being in a message movie of sorts,
04:13but I particularly think of myself as someone who gives people an opportunity to get away
04:22from what their everyday life is for two hours, two and a half hours, and take some
04:29kind of ride that gives them an opportunity to not think about what their troubles might
04:34be or how their lives are impacted by outside forces or the external forces that keep them
04:43in certain situations so that they can come in here and escape that, come into the big
04:47dark room and escape that and have a shared feeling with all the people that are there
04:52and leave with a smile on their faces or a little more adrenaline or to be energized
04:58by what they've seen and feel better about themselves.
05:02So I choose movies that are entertaining.