I used to like watching Helen Mirren's early films, because she was always naked. It's titillating. Samuel L. Jackson More Quotes by Samuel L. Jackson More Quotes From Samuel L. Jackson Everybody likes an extraordinary person or likes to think that they would be great with a superpower in an ordinary world. Samuel L. Jackson ordinary-world extraordinary-person thinking I act the way I talk. It probably comes from starting out in Second City, improvisational theater. I can go from take to take. I'll ask for another take. Samuel L. Jackson starting-out cities way It's always interesting to play characters who are vulnerable and how you display that vulnerability and what it's going to mean to people who watch it. Samuel L. Jackson play character mean I don't get the great story line, action, mystery scripts; I get comedies. And relationship comedies are what I do. It's what attracted me to American Pie. Samuel L. Jackson pie lines stories It's often hope, hopeful movie making. You're always looking for catchphrases. That's always funny, when you're looking for that future line. "Uh oh, future line. Okay." Samuel L. Jackson hopeful okay Quentin Tarantino was talking about Ordell a little bit, and I was like, "I'm sure Ordell is one of those people who thought Superfly was the greatest movie ever made." So he cuts his hair and straightens it, but he never has enough money to maintain it perfectly. So it's kind of nappy around the edges, straight and kind of puffed up. That's why he'd always keep it in a ponytail or a braid. We were just having fun and creating a distinctive character. Samuel L. Jackson cutting fun character I often think, "How many ways have I died in the movies?" I guess I can find out now. I'm always thinking of ways that I haven't died. "Well, I've been killed this way in this movie, but I haven't died this way yet." I don't think I've ever been guillotined, or anything like that. Samuel L. Jackson thinking I was desperate on Coming To America set - not to buy drugs or anything, but I had a person at home, a girlfriend who's telling you, "You're out the bills and food. You need this, you need that. And you either get it, or don't come back." That was me. Samuel L. Jackson drug girlfriend home I like books. I've always got a literature book going. I'd be in there reading, in my off time. Samuel L. Jackson reading literature book I enjoyed being at Jurassic Park, with Jeff Goldblum and Sir Richard Attenborough. It's funny, because Steven Spielberg would actually operate the camera sometimes. He'd consider the camera, and he'd be kind of looking at me. He actually shot a few of the things that I'm in, in that lab, with that long ash dangling off that cigarette. Hogging that fake cigarette. Because I had quit smoking, and he wanted to make sure I didn't go back, so he got me the worst-tasting fake cigarettes ever. Samuel L. Jackson jurassic-park fake long I said to George Lucas, "I'd like a purple lightsaber." And he said, "Why?" and I said, "I just want to be able to find myself. I'm the most powerful Jedi in the universe, and I think it would be an interesting thing for me to have a different color lightsaber than anybody else." Samuel L. Jackson powerful interesting thinking Hair is very, very distinctive. I started that with that boxing movie I did, The Great White Hype. The director wanted me to look like Don King, and everybody knew who Don King was. But I didn't want to be Don King. I wanted the man to be Rev. Fred Sultan, so I decided to make him look like Julius Caesar. And from that point on, I just decided, I had this great wig-maker, so I just found hairstyles that I felt would be distinctive for every character. Like an adventure. Samuel L. Jackson adventure character men When I'd read the script [The Man], [ Eugene Levy] that's who I'd seen in my mind. When I ran into him, I said to him, 'I read the script. You'd be great.' He had no idea what I was talking about. Then, we saw each other again in London. He'd read it and was enthused about it. Samuel L. Jackson talking men ideas What I remember from [the first meeting with Samuel L. Jackson] was that he was a friendly, animated kind of guy. His screen image is a hard boiled intimidating kind of character. That's what I remembered thinking, 'Boy, this guy seems like a normal guy.' Samuel L. Jackson character boys thinking When you start to talk about comic books, a lot of the time, people forget about the comic part of it. They need to be funny. Samuel L. Jackson book people needs I did play a dentist in Waiting for Guffman. I wrote the speech at the conference. In the original script, when it got to that scene, it was, 'Thank you very much. Good night.' Literally. I just thought, 'He keeps talking about this speech. The keynote address is the big thing in his life and this is too important to say, "Thank you. Good night." I think we have to see and hear him doing what he does.' So I got together with my dentist and we worked through a few things. Samuel L. Jackson good-night talking thinking Those are the rules. To improvise in a movie with other people, when they're following a script, everybody has to know what's going on. I think a line or two we might change. Certainly, I do. But I wouldn't call it improvising. I'd call it fudging the lines. Samuel L. Jackson two people thinking I'm a one-take kind of guy, except I don't do it in one take. Samuel L. Jackson guy kind I've never considered myself a comedian. I'm a comedic actor. Samuel L. Jackson comedic comedian actors I approach my work the way an actor approaches their work. The only difference is that I do comedy, and my job is to make things funny. My style makes things sound like they're improvisational and happening right then and there. 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