Excepts From An Interview with Samuel L. Jackson
"Formula
51" marks yet another action packed super cool film from
actor and producer Samuel L. Jackson. When meeting Sam, he seems
almost larger than life, and way too funny to be Samuel L. Jackson;
all you can think of is that he's Shaft, he's Star War's Mace
Windu, he's Pulp Fiction's bible quoting Jules Winnfield, he's
a mega movie star and I'm here talking to him! It's a lot to take
in, and just as your mind is debating if you're worthy (I'm not
worthy!), he makes you feel at ease, and within moments you forget
that he's Samuel L. Jackson. Yes, he's a movie star, but Sam's
also someone that is genuinely nice and without an ego. You begin
to think that he's just this really happening guy who stopped
in to have a chat on a Sunday afternoon. It's times like this
that I love my job.
 In
the film Sam spends all of his time running around in a kilt.
The kilt became a hot subject as someone in the room said to Sam,
"we didn't recognize you without your kilt," as he walked
in. Everyone laughed, and Sam responded with: "Oh really.
What if I pulled down my pants and walked away from you, would
you recognize me then?" Sam had everyone rolling,
and seeing that he was so laid back only encouraged me to ask,
"Did you wear underwear, or no underwear?" Sam looked
me straight in the eye, very serious: "It depends on
the day, some day's you know I had to climb ladder's, or do some
running and jumping things and we didn't have enough money to
CGI what might come up." Too funny! Now the whole
kilt thing is entertaining, but there's something even more over
the top then this in the film. In the final scene of the film,
Sam walks away in his birthday suit, for what appears to be no
reason at all. When Sam was asked about this scene, he smiled
and said: "I like taking my clothes off in movies!
(Very sarcastic) Yeahhh. Not like that, it was very cold that
day and it was raining. So I was like okay you guys, you have
one shot at this, cause I'm only going to do this once."
With that said, again, I couldn't help myself…"Did you
do extra squats before doing that scene?" Sam: "Did
I do what?!" Me: "Extra squats or anything just
to prepare because they're going to show everything?" Sam:
"I have a good butt. (Everyone was laughing
so hard) I've always had that. I always have. Naaa, you
don't have to pump it up. It's just there!" Okay,
I'm ridiculous for asking about squats, and Sam has a great sense
of humor for entertaining my silliness.
 The
film was shot on location in Liverpool. Sam had many really nice
things to say about the city, the people, and the overall atmosphere.
He even talked about driving there: "I did great after
the first-all you gotta to do is make a wrong turn like three
times, and you don't do it again. You turn onto on coming traffic
three times, that's enough. You just start to remember, passenger
to the curb." We also talked a little bit about his
new project S.W.A.T:
"We're in rehearsal now, and we start shooting in a
couple of few weeks…We're actually going to swat camp right
now, so for the past few days I've been in swat camp, and I gotta
go again this week. The other day we were doing life fireworks,
blowing up targets, (You're having fun!) some big
old guns." What about XXX,
is he coming back for the sequel? Sam: "We're talking
about it, yeah, and we-actually Rob and I had some conversations
about what Gibbons back story is and why he is what he is, and
hopefully that will show up in the next one. I purposely did not
pick up a gun. I purposely didn't beat anybody up. I was just
Gibbons, so he's this mystery guy, so may be we'll find out what
happened to his face. We'll find out if he was a Bond type, and
why he is where he is, and why he gets to do that stuff."
 "Formula
51" will open to American moviegoers on October 18th; hopefully
the film will ride the same wave of success it did in the U.K.
last Christmas. At the box office the film came in just behind
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," and has been
a top purchase and movie rental for about two months. Sam pioneered
"Formula 51" for five years, first by buying the script
from a writer: "Stel [Pavlou] kind of lived that fairy
tale dream of writing a script for that particular, I guess, star
in his mind, and he sent it to my managers and agents, and I actually
got it. He's like a kid working in a liquor store going to school
and writing a script…I got it, I liked it, we made the movie.
Took a while, but it happened." Then, Sam attached
one of his favorite Hong Kong directors, Ronny Yu, to the film:
"His visual style, his enthusiasm, a speed of working
that you normally don't find in Hollywood. He still has that Hong
Kong sensibility that we have to hurry, we have to get a lot of
stuff done because we don't have much money, we gotta get it done,
which is essential in this particular instance. He's got a sense
of humor, a lot of directors don't. He doesn't try to enforce
humor on a situation, he let it happen organically, and I think
that's the real key to doing good comedy." As you
can see, Sam's professionalism and stellar acting abilities has
earned him acclaim, and the means to green light projects. "Formula
51" marks his third producer credit; he's also produced "The
Caveman's Valentine," and "Eve's Bayou." Make sure
to catch kilt wearing, birthday suit showing Sam on the 18th.
The film is a must see, not only because of what I've mentioned,
but because it's a truly fun film to watch.
If you have any questions, or
comments you can write me at jax@latinoreview.com
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