‘Getting into sh**’: Samuel L Jackson on Quentin Tarantino and rumoured Pulp Fiction sequel

As he unveils his latest Hollywood role, star Samuel L Jackson reflects on whether he’d work with Quentin Tarantino again – and reveals the Pulp Fiction director has ‘just disappeared’.

Samuel L Jackson. Picture: AFP

Samuel L Jackson has made his mark in some of the most popular films of the past 40 years, but the actor’s new TV series takes him back to a time when he was just getting started.

As the 75-year-old considers the enduring love for Pulp Fiction, he tells Stellar if he will team up with Quentin Tarantino again and – given his foul-mouthed alter egos – reveals his favourite swear word.

Stellar: Earlier this year, you marked the 30th anniversary of Pulp Fiction with some

of your co-stars, including Uma Thurman and John Travolta. Did you get to rewatch the film together, and what was that like?

Samuel L Jackson: The only time I watched it with everybody was at Cannes [in 1994]. Bruce [Willis] and I flew there from shooting Die Hard With A Vengeance, and it was a great experience. Bruce and I were surprised because we were watching it at the festival, and realising that a lot of people were listening to it at Cannes in a whole other language. But they still got it, and it was still working.

‘I have to keep working!’ Samuel L. Jackson, right, with his wife, LaTanya Richardson Jackson. Picture: AFP

Fight Night stars Kevin Hart, Terrence Howard, Don Cheadle, Taraji P. Henson and Samuel L. Jackson. Picture: Getty Images

‘People think it’s one of the coolest things they’ve ever seen!’ Samuel L Jackson on Pulp Fiction. Picture: Getty Images

So we were shocked by that, and then when it won the Palme d’Or, we were even more shocked. Reading [the script], I knew my friends would like it. I didn’t know the whole world would embrace it the way that they have. So it has been a very interesting experience and a long-lasting experience. It seems like every year I get a few million more fans, because some kids come of age and they can finally watch it, or their parents let them watch it for the first time. And people still think it’s one of the coolest things they’ve ever seen.

Do you think we may ever see a sequel? Is it something you would be open to?

I doubt it. Well, not made by the person who made the original. You know, I often think of Jules [Winnfield, the character Jackson plays in the film] out in the world doing what he said he was going to do: just walking the earth and getting into sh*t. But I don’t think Quentin [Tarantino, who wrote and directed Pulp Fiction] is going to write it. Somebody else might try one of these days.

Maybe there’s a TV series in that?

Yeah, and it’s called Kung Fu!

Tarantino might not be up for writing part two, but you’ve worked with him again on films such as 1997 drama Jackie Brown and the Westerns Django Unchained in 2012 and The Hateful Eight in 2015. He’s said he will retire after directing his 10th film, which will be his next project. Will you be part of his final act?

I have no idea. Before, when he was getting ready to do the film [The Movie Critic, plans for which the director scrapped in April], we had talked about me doing something in it, and then he changed the film. And now he’s just disappeared. So we have no idea where he is and what he’s going to do. But I’ve got to keep working. My wife needs things.

Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino with Margot Robbie pictured in 2019. Picture: Getty Images

Your new series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist is based on an infamous real-life robbery at a party celebrating Muhammad Ali’s 1970 comeback bout in Atlanta. At the time, you were still two years away from making your film debut in the drama Together For Days. What was life like for you then?

I was around Atlanta, just starting my theatre career. I’d just met LaTanya, my wife. I had a lot of friends in Atlanta, but I had been in Atlanta since September 1966, when I went to college. I got there early, and then was gone for a while because I got kicked out of school. So I was just coming back [in 1970].

Did you get the chance to meet Ali?

I met Ali a bunch of times. I think the first time I met him was when I used to work on The Cosby Show. I was Bill Cosby’s stand-in for the first two years the show was on. So he used to come by that set a lot. I would see him when he came to visit Bill, and I’d meet him out in places. After I started working in this business, I got invited to a lot of different events where he was so I saw him, or I would be in the airport, in the executive lounge, and he would come in and I’d sit and talk to him there.

Samuel L Jackson with Quentin Tarantino and Kurt Russell during a trip to Sydney in 2016. Picture: AAP

You’ve played a lot of characters who are known for their colourful language, and you’ve been cited as one of the top three onscreen swearers. What is your favourite swear word – and why?

You know what? My favourite would pretty much be motherf**ker. But only because it can be used in so many different ways. I mean, when I see people that I like I can go [in an excited voice]: “Hey, motherf**ker! What’s up?” Or when I’m describing somebody or just talking about a different person and you don’t necessarily know their name, you can just go, “That motherf**ker that runs the so and so …” or “The motherf**ker we were talking to the other day …” and so on. Then there’s when things go bad and you go “Motherf**ker!” with disgust. Or something happens and then you can hit your hand and go “Motherf**ker!” That’s the pain “motherf**ker”. And then you have the love “motherf**ker”, or the “Oh … motherf**ker” when something feels really good. It’s a very descriptive word.

But no-one says it quite like you.

[Grins] I don’t know about that. You can work it. Let me hear yours …

Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist is streaming now on Binge. Read the full interview with Samuel L Jackson in the latest issue of Stellar. For more from Stellar, click here.

Originally published as ‘Getting into sh**’: Samuel L Jackson on Quentin Tarantino and rumoured Pulp Fiction sequel