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Features
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One Man's Bum Rap
Although Samuel L. Jackson insists those reports of a feud with rapper 50 Cent are greatly exaggerated, he has no problems fessing up to a little posterior action with co-star Eugene Levy.
Friday, September 9, 2005
By Kevin Biggers
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Steve Granitz/Wireimage.com
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Representing the courage of his convictions
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When hip-hop artists call out other hip-hop artists, the world continues to turn, despite what BET or The Source magazine may say. In fact, since the Tupac Shakur/Notorious B.I.G. feud, which subsequently boosted posthumous record sales to numbers greater than anyone could imagine, feuds have become a commonplace practice in the hip-hop industry. Often, a more established artist will take shots at an up-and-coming artist like a king attempting to squash a rising rebellion, and vice versa. At the end of the day, both parties profit from the increased exposure and the extra motivation. More often than not, no one remembers, much less cares.
But when the industry’s top artist and one of the most famous actors in the world exchange unsettling words, everyone takes particular notice. Therefore, when sundry publications and sources reported comments allegedly made by Samuel L. Jackson concerning his refusal to work with rap artist Curtis Jackson, a.k.a. 50 Cent, on his first feature film Get Rich or Die Tryin’, the media was quick to promote the star-studded feud.
The legitimacy of the reports is supported by shaky buttresses. That aside, most of the accounts consistently portray Samuel L. Jackson to have expressed disgust that director Jim Sheridan even approached him to play opposite of 50 Cent. Several reports explain that the actor refused to even read the script, proclaiming, ‘I like listening to 50 Cent and I can groove to his music but I don’t want to groove to him on screen, just yet. Maybe if he does five movies and he shows some talent.’
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Dimitrios Kambouris/Wireimage.com
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Get Rich rapper 50 Cent
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During a recent interview with FilmStew in Beverly Hills, the actor was able to respond to the reports. “I come into contact with all these people that I’m supposedly in conflict with, and we’re okay,” Jackson says. The actor adds that the rapper calls him all the time and then goes on to question the publication’s credibility, saying that for magazines, it’s a lot easier to “sell conflict rather than harmony.”
Whether the story is true or not, one has to wonder if these thoughts, regardless of if they were verbalized or not, crossed Jackson’s mind when Sheridan or whomever offered him the script. And if Jackson indeed made these comments about the rapper, it seems sensible for Jackson to so ardently recant his statements or deny them altogether. After all, feuding with 50 Cent had deleterious effects on rappers like Ja Rule, whose once-financially-rewarding rap career has taken a detour through, most notably B-movies (a small part in Assault on Precinct 13 and a bit part as Leslie Nielson’s bodyguard in Scary Movie 3.)
It seems that whether Jackson articulated such thoughts about 50 or not, he certainly feels strongly averse to starring in movies opposite unproven actors. “You [referring to well-known actors like him] give credibility to a story because they [the audience] know there’s something solid that’s going to be there,” Jackson explains. “It will raise the other actors’ abilities because they have to be on screen with us and either be embarrassed or step up…and that’s just the honest truth about it."
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Jeff Vespa/Wireimage.com
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The equally busy Eugene Levy
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In his latest movie The Man, Jackson stars opposite of proven funny
man Eugene Levy, whom Jackson “loved watching” on screen on Second
City Television, the popular Canadian sketch comedy, which launched the careers of John Candy and Catherine O’Hara, among others. “We’re from the same place,” Jackson says of Levy, “He did SCTV for so long and I did theatre for so long that we both learned how to develop characters and worked in ensemble play…So when we worked we knew how to compliment each other because that’s what we’ve done.”
Jackson believes this chemistry will evoke the most laughter during the scene where the altruistic Andy Fiddler (Levy) repeatedly calls the choleric Derrick Vann (Jackson) ‘his bitch.’ The scene is topped off when Fiddler smacks Vann in the face and then the buttocks - something Jackson was not aware of before they shot the scene.
“When I read it, I knew how hilarious it would be and could be and I know audiences have this perception of me,” Jackson recalls. “And Eugene had things he wanted to do in the middle of it and all of a sudden he started smacking me. Once he did that I said, ‘You
might as well smack me in the ass when I get in the car!’”
The scene needed to be shot multiple times because the camera operators, who at the time were using hand-held cameras, could not stop laughing. Jackson’s webmaster told him when she posted the video of the scene, his site and her own site each received 2
million hits in 40 hours.
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Steve Granitz/Wireimage.com
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Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan
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While Jackson fans may dispute whether Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction), John Shaft (Shaft) or another ranks as the actor’s best work, the actor maintains his favorite was as Mitch Henessey in the all-flash-no-substance action movie The
Long Kiss Goodnight. “I always wanted to play him again,” Jackson admits. “We were hoping for the movie to be successful so that we’d end up dong a few of them.”
Jackson attributes the movie’s pedestrian run in the box office to marketing mistakes, as opposed to a deluge of female vehicles following Long Kiss, which he believes were marketed better, but may not have been better. “It’s better than all those tough chick flicks…It’s way better than Charlie’s Angels; it’s better than Lara Croft,” he says sternly.
Jackson starred alongside the competent Geena Davis in Long Kiss and now Levy in The Man. Yet there are a slew of other Jackson-featured films with less proven co-stars. Earlier this year, Jackson appeared in the critically lambasted XXX: State of the Union alongside the relatively unproven rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube. In Shaft, Busta Rhymes played a supporting role; in Deep Blue Sea, LL Cool J co-stars.
It all makes those alleged Jackson 50 Cent comments even more questionable. Still, was it really worth passing up the opportunity to work with lauded Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan for The Man, which was helmed by Les Mayfield, the same Les Mayfield who directed such uninspired movies as American Outlaws and Encino Man? Furthermore, if Get Rich or Die Tryin’ turns out to be a commercial or critical hit, will it not make this choice all the more problematic?
In the end, Jackson appears to be the kind of actor who loses no sleep over the various rapid fire choices that he must make while navigating Hollywood. He remains one of the most sought after and recognizable on-screen personalities in town, and even if 50 Cent were to throw some unkind words back his way, it’s likely the actor will be too busy, be it on a movie set or on one of his beloved golf courses.
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