BLACK SNAKE MOAN An Interview with Samuel L. Jackson, CONTINUED
By Wilson Morales

Is this a misogynist film?

Samuel L. Jackson: I don't know. There are a lot of films you can call misogynist or I think that Christina’s performance is one of thebravest performances I've seen that a young actress would take. I'm sure there are a lot of young women who wouldn’t touch this thing. I saw audition tapes for maybe 3 or 4 different women. Like I said, we talk about sexual dysfunction and we talk about nymphomania but we never see what that process is and it's kind of interesting watching whatever this thing is that internally takes her over.  The way she succumbs to it all the time rather than fighting it. She says no, no, no. but she always kind of lets go and lets it happen and not realizing that her power is in resisting it. I don't know. It's titillating. It's not often you see a young actress in that state of undress 2/3 of a film.  It's very kind of early Helen Mirren and that you know. I used to like watching Helen Mirren's young lady films because she was always naked.  I don't know.  Misogynist, I don't know. Titillating, yes.

Are you going to pop up in Die Hard 4?

Samuel L. Jackson: No.

How about Lazarus' reaction when he realizes what happened to Lincoln?  It was sort of the way you'd like your father to react if you were in that situation but I thought he really handled it in an unusual way.

Samuel L. Jackson: Well, not in the beginning. He kicked him in the ass and kicked him out of the house and did all that other stuff and then you know you think about it you go to a bar and have this little conversation with him.  In fact, there was this interesting little ad lib that Craig had in the 1st cut then he took out of the film.  It was funny because we had this whole conversation about wow, very nice and the last thing I said to him was white girl too.  Which we all thought was funny but then I don't know why Craig took it out.  Men talk to their sons differently than they talk to their daughter's in an interesting sort of way. You always expect your sons to go through their rite of passage and I guess if they share their first sexual experience with you; you can be kind of proud of them in a way. They made it through that or they crossed that threshold.

Did you talk to John about producing movies while you were doing this and then afterward?  Is that the kind of thing you do talk about producing or maybe directing?

Samuel L. Jackson: No.

No?

Samuel L. Jackson: I produced movies on my own already so talking to John about producing while John produces a certain kind of film. I guess he's kind of hands-on.  I never watched. He and Craig interact when they were talking about what was going on. I knew they were having those conversations but I was busy trying to figure out what I was going to do in the scene.  It's a different kind of animal.  Lot of people do it in different ways. Some people do it in a hands-off way; some people are very hands on.  I never perceived myself as an intrusive producer.  I have conversations with people about time and what we're gong to do in a particular day and how much time we plan to spend doing this, that and the other and how it's all going and looking at dailies and fixing stuff.  It's all very different.

In this film, as most of your other films, you have an interesting hairstyle. Was it your choice to wear the hairpiece?

Samuel L. Jackson: Lazarus?  Well, yeah.  Craig actually wanted me to look a lot like R. L. Burnside who actually died when we were shooting. That’s sort of what he looks like and it's also sort of what my grandfather's brothers looked like.  Yeah, it was a conscious choice to have that receding hairline and have white hair to make him older and kind of lived in and walked like he carries a lot of weight around on his shoulders.  Kind of like farmers.  Farmers are very strong and vital kinds of guys but they don't move very fast to conserve their energy.

Why do you think his wife left him?

Samuel L. Jackson: Well, she wanted more. She wanted more out of life. She wanted more fun in her life. She wanted more excitement and vibrancy and Lazarus wasn't providing that. She kind of felt she was on that farm stuck, isolated not going anywhere, not doing anything and she wanted another kind of life and apparently his brother was going to provide that for her.

Could you talk about other projects you've done since Black Snake Moan through what you're working on now?

Samuel L. Jackson: What have I done since then?

What about 1408?

Samuel L. Jackson: Oh right. I went from Black Snake Moan ...oh, I did Home of the Brave. Home of the Brave was next. I still don't know when they're going to release it, even thought it was in limited release around Christmas. The story about the soldiers coming home from Iraq with Jessica Biel and 50 Cent.  After that, I did 1408 last summer. I saw the trailer for it and it looks pretty good.

Can you tell us about your character?

Samuel L. Jackson: I'm just the hotel manager who's trying to prevent this guy from staying in that room because he doesn't believe in paranormal experiences even though he writes about them. He's never actually seen a ghost in that room.  He's purely evil but he has to go into that to find that out. So that and trying to prevent him from doing that. It's not a big role; it's just sort of expository talking about all the deaths that have happened in the room and why he shouldn't stay in it. Then I went to Jumper. Jumper is still shooting actually, which is a film about kids who can teleport and I play a government agent that's sort of chasing them and killing them and kind of hates kids that can do that because they leave these interesting rips in the atmosphere when they do it.  That's still kind of going on so I'm back and forth still shooting stuff for that.  What else is there? Seems like there's something else I'm missing.

What about Cleaner?

Samuel L. Jackson: Oh yeah, Cleaner 'I’m doing now which is about a guy who cleans death sites. Interestingly enough, after police finish with a crime scenes, or people die in a house or whatever it's up to family to clean the house up, get the brains off the wall, the blood off the floor and that's something I didn't know. I always thought they did it. But this guy runs a business that does that and he also cleans up other kinds of biohazards with animals and all kinds of stuff.  It's about a guy who actually gets a call from the police and he goes and cleans up a crime scene site and a couple of days later he's looking in the paper and the house that he cleaned up the husband's missing and the wife doesn't know what happened and he realizes that somebody duped him into cleaning up a crime scene that the police don't know about yet. Now he's got to figure out what to do.  Does he tell them, does he try to figure out who did it or whatever?  The wife actually comes to him because he accidentally took her key and went back to the house.  That's that. I'm supposed to do a film called Black Water Transit after that and after that I'm supposed to do a film called Laneview Terrace which is about a racist cop who kind of harasses this interracial couple that moves into his neighborhood. I don't know what I'm doing after that.

Resurrecting the Champ?

Samuel L. Jackson:  Resurrecting the Champ, that's what I did. Oh, duh.  Yeah, Resurrecting The Champ was a film I did with Josh Hartnett about a homeless fighter that this reporter discovers and starts writing about his life and telling his story because he wants to be as famous as his father was who was a famous journalist. Nice little story.

When do you have time for golf?

Samuel L. Jackson: I have a golf clause in my contract. They have to let me play twice a week.

How long did you say the chain was?

Samuel L. Jackson: How long?  30-40 feet. She could go all over the house chained to it. You saw how far she could get out into the yard with it on, so it's relatively long and Christina insisted on wearing a real chain all the time so relatively heavy too.

BLACK SNAKE MOAN opens on March 2, 2007

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