The story of how Samuel L. Jackson stole his ‘Pulp Fiction’ role
The role that really cemented Samuel L. Jackson‘s status as one of Hollywood’s most badass actors was his legendary performance as the hitman Jules Winnfield in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 crime classic Pulp Fiction. Jackson’s effort as Jules has gone down in history, and is perhaps one of the most quoted characters in cinema history.
It’s no surprise that Jackson, who delivered countless memorable monologues and one-liners and gave an explosive and intoxicating performance, was nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’, and in the proceeding years, he’s become a touchstone of the American film industry.
Despite Jules remaining Jackson’s most iconic character, it actually transpires that the role was not always his, and we might never have seen him quoting from the Bible and waxing lyrical about European cheeseburgers. Tarantino had actually written the character for Laurence Fishburne, meaning that it was not always Jackson’s for the taking.
This is quite surprising, seeing how Jackson simply embodied Jules and made him larger than life in the way that only he truly could. Back in 2020, Fishburne explained why he decided to turn down the Jules part, and it came down to the way Tarantino seemed to glorify drug use in the narrative, something he was not totally comfortable with.
“[I] just had a problem with the way the heroin use was dealt with. I just felt it was a little cavalier, and it was a little loose,” Fishburne told The Independent. “I felt it made heroin use attractive. For me, it’s not just my character. It’s ‘What is the whole thing saying?'” But even after Fishburne, Jackson was not first in line.
Tarantino instead set his sights on Paul Calderon, but when the director turned up late to auditions, Calderon appeared frustrated, meaning that when it came to Jackson’s turn, he had had a little extra time to add his personal flair to the character, appearing at once vexed yet effortlessly cool.
Producer Richard Gladstein once explained to Vanity Fair, “In comes Sam with a burger in his hand and a drink in the other hand and stinking like fast food. He walked in and just started sipping that shake and biting that burger and looking at all of us. I was scared shitless. I thought that this guy was going to shoot a gun right through my head. His eyes were popping out of his head. And he just stole the part.”
Not only did Jackson steal the part, but he stole the show of Pulp Fiction. His career took off, and he helped to make Tarantino’s second movie one of the best of his career. Check out Jackson as Jules below.
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