Samuel L Jackson explains what Quentin Tarantino and Tim Burton have in common
Samuel L Jackson has worked with just about every famous director. He was on set with George Lucas for the Star Wars prequels, worked with Spike Lee on Do the Right Thing, and was fed to a dinosaur by Steven Spielberg in Jurassic Park.
In 2016, Jackson added Tim Burton to his list of collaborators when he appeared in his movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Adapted from a novel by Ramson Riggs, the film tells the story of a group of kids with supernatural powers protected by the watchful eye of Eva Green’s title character. Jackson plays the film’s villain, Mr Barron, a shapeshifting creature and leader of a group of monsters called Hollows.
While chatting with Direct Conversations, the star revealed a similarity between Burton and one of his most frequent creative partners, Quentin Tarantino. “I found that both Tim and Quentin are both sure-handed directors who know what they want and how they want to do it,” he said. “They have a crack team of people around them that understand them and their shorthand. They get what they want very quickly and don’t work you to death trying to get it.”
Tarantino is the man credited with breaking Jackson, as his movie Pulp Fiction brought the star to the masses in a lead role. He also cast him as gun smuggler Ordell Robbie in Jackie Brown, turncoat slave Stephen in Django Unchained, and bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren in The Hateful Eight. In fact, there was almost a crossover between that last movie and Miss Peregrine, as Jackson revealed. “I wrapped ‘Hateful Eight’ with Quentin,” he said. “And I was wearing Mr Barron’s eyes, teeth and wig two days later.” Tarantino also snuck Jackson into two more of his movies: as the narrator in Inglorious Basterds and as an organ player in Kill Bill: Volume II.
Like Tarantino, Burton is also known for having a regular cast of actors with whom he likes to work. The most famous examples are Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, Burton’s ex-partner, but he’s also routinely employed the services of Danny DeVito, Michael Keaton, and Winona Ryder. Miss Peregrine marked a significant departure from this formula, though, as Burton worked alongside several new actors, such as Jackson, Asa Butterfield, Ella Purnell, and Judi Dench. He clearly wasn’t keen on this, as his next picture, Dumbo, starred DeVito and Keaton.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children ended up getting its director into some hot water after a row broke out about the film’s lack of diversity. People weren’t happy that Jackson was the only actor of colour in the cast. The fact that he was the villain didn’t help. “Nowadays, people are talking about it more,” Burton told Bustle. “I remember back when I was a child watching The Brady Bunch and they started to get all politically correct. Like, OK, let’s have an Asian child and a black. I used to get more offended by that.” Safe to say, this bizarre comparison did little to aid his case.
Jackson’s recent efforts have been a very mixed bag. He appeared in both Argylle and The Garfield Movie, neither of which earned terrific reviews, but he also had a role in The Piano Lesson, which is currently getting Oscar buzz. As for Burton, he returned to an old favourite in 2024, releasing Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to his 1988 cult classic.
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