The one actor Samuel L Jackson would give up his free time to watch: “I wished I was in the scene”
If you were to believe everything you have read in the magazines, Marvel is a dumpster fire of acting talent. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that superhero movies and their “theme park” like nature aren’t a result of poor acting chops or an underwhelming roster of performers. If you don’t find superhero movies entertaining, then chances are you have narrative, pacing and durability to point the finger at. Veterans like Samuel L Jackson will attest to that.
Jackson has been among the most consistently working actors of the last 40 years. Despite having roles in Do The Right Thing and Coming to America in the 1980s, it would be the 1990s that would see the star of Samuel L Jackson truly rise into the stratosphere. In the first five years of the decade alone, he would take roles in seminal movies Jurassic Park, True Romance, Menace II Society, Patriot Games, and Pulp Fiction.
From there on, Jackson has been proud of his ability to nail down roles and find himself continuously playing in a cinema near you. With over 150 film roles to date that have collectively achieved over $27billion at the box office, Jackson is one of the most coveted actors around. It made him a desirable target when the Marvel team began looking to fill the role of Nick Fury.
Appearing in Iron Man as part of a landmark post-credit scene, Fury would appear in 11 further MCU movies. As well as roles in three separate TV spin-offs. Suffice it to say that Jackson knows a thing or two about the two worlds of professional acting and comic book heroes colliding together. It means he is best placed to give us a verdict on some of the performers behind the superheroes. In a recent interview about his role in Secret Invasion, Jackson couldn’t help but share his admiration for his cast mates.
“Amazing! So amazing,” Jackson said to Rolling Stone when opening up about his experience working with a group that included the impressive majesty of Olivia Colman. “I walked in the room that morning when we were supposed to shoot our first scene together. I looked at her, she looked at me, and we both burst out laughing. It was just, ‘Oh my God!’ It was so great. Emilia Clarke was amazing.”
Jackson also noted Don Cheadle’s presence being a welcoming one, sharing that while they had appeared in many Marvel movies together, they had rarely shared “a meaningful conversation until this particular thing.” Another star of Secret Invasion with whom Jackson has shared a long-term working relationship is Ben Mendelsohn, who stars as Talos in Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home and Secret Invasion.
Jackson shared: “Ben has got chops that are out of this world.”
It goes to show that while the franchises may not be to everybody’s taste, the level of acting talent on the display cannot be denounced. In fact, one performance was so impressive that Jackson would even forgo his off days to watch him perform: “I even went to work when I wasn’t working just to watch Martin Freeman because I wished I was in the scene with him.”
With gruelling days and high expectations, one cannot imagine Jackson giving up his free time easily. So, to suggest that Freeman’s performance as Agent Everett Ross was worthy of losing that time to watch is perhaps the highest praise of all. Marvel certainly isn’t the perfect vehicle for such a wealth of talent, however, its pulling power means that sheer cting talent will never be the cause of a movie or TV series’ downfall.
