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By DP30 david@thehotbuttonl.com

DP/30: Django Unchained, actor Samuel L Jackson

Many DP/30s this year have been with Oscar-worthy actors and actresses. But in this case, at this moment in the year, I am taking the unusual step of noting here that This Actor Deserves It. None of the awards groups have recognized his performance in Django Unchained so far. But for me, it is the home run performance in this film… and one of the great turns of the year.

And as you can see in this interview, a consummate muthafucking pro….

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13 Responses to “DP/30: Django Unchained, actor Samuel L Jackson”

  1. sanj says:

    – he is keeping it real

    – really liked the last 5 minutes

    – liked his 2 minute review for un named movie at 18 minutes – which is probably Gangster Squad (2013)

    – no confusing questions from DP – DP let him talk …

    – did he take a minor swipe at Tom Cruise ?

    – what does LexG think about this interview …

    – hopefully clips from this make to some tv entertainment shows

    – i give this a rare 9/10

  2. Djiggs says:

    This is the greatest dp30 ever. Only question that I wished you asked was how did he and Spike Lee patch things up since he is working with him again on Spike’s version of Oldboy?

  3. Not David Bordwell says:

    Gotta confess, I generally don’t have the time or inclination to watch these interviews, but DP was so effusive in his tweets had to to check this one out. The bookends of the conversation are priceless.

    SLJ declares up front that this is all part of his professional obligation, and you can see the skepticism in his entire attitude before he sits down to get to work. I don’t know if Poland is even on his radar, but here’s a guy he doesn’t really know telling him this isn’t going to be like a junket, and his face is all “yeah, whatever” and “how’s that gonna work.” And there’s a couple of moments where you can see him rearing back ready for the same old shit but Poland just lets him talk without pressing an agenda… such that at the end, he’s surprised to feel like he just had a conversation.

    That purposeless expression on his face as he gazes at the camera at the end is kind of jarring, too, because he doesn’t seem to realize that he has been in the moment for a full half hour, which is where that valediction comes from when it occurs to him. And it’s still all part of the job. What a pro.

  4. JacksonFan says:

    Sanj, it seemed to me like he might have been referencing Killing Them Softly. Regardless, such a refreshingly candid interview, as always, from Jackson. Loved it.

  5. sanj says:

    it could be Killing Them Softly or Gangster Squad – DP do you know which movie he’s talking about …

    Jackson really hates depressing movies – there are a lot of those which have gotten awards – would like him to review
    some – see if he changes his mind .

  6. John Keefer says:

    He was definitely talking about Killing Them Softly. Because I agree with him…I’d also agree with him just in general practice.

  7. jon says:

    One of your best.

  8. Peter says:

    THIS.IS.AWESOME.

    Wow, 30 minutes just flew by, probably the best DP30 I have seen.

  9. Geoff says:

    No doubt in my mind that he is talking about Killy Them Softly but I did like that movie for the most part.

    Great interview!

  10. MarkVH says:

    “This a ‘look at me’ fuckin’ business.” Phenomenal. Great, great interview.

  11. Talie says:

    I always thought he was a very easy-going, fun guy, but he has been very prickly on this particular press tour. If he doesn’t want to be out there, he shouldn’t be. But maybe part of him is hoping for Oscar attention. I mean, no one else in the film seems to be pushing as hard as he is. But he just seems very guarded and pissed. He really went in on that Jake the Movieguy in his interview.

  12. Rashad says:

    Yeah, this was probably my favorite DP/30. He’s an easy conversationalist. Half hour flew by.

    Also, it was Killing Them Softly. From the interview on HP:

    But “Pulp Fiction” is a once-in-a-lifetime-type movie.
    It’s a standalone film.

    It’s hard to top.
    People have been trying to do it and trying to do it. I saw some people try to do it just a week ago and failed miserably.

    Which movie is this?
    “Killing Them Softly.” It didn’t quite happen. And going nowhere! You can do that, but you’ve got to go somewhere. That’s the marvelous thing about Quentin: his movies are talky as all hell, but it’s shit you want to hear.

  13. cadavra says:

    Just FYI, KILLING is based on a novel by vet crime author George V. Higgins (best known for “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”), and much of the dialogue comes straight from the book.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon