Receiving an Academy Award was the best way to honor Samuel L. Jackson after years of entertaining audiences. In recent years, the Shaft actor has been busier than ever between film and television projects and those beloved Capital One commercials. But, of course, film is his best medium as clear by his countless appearances as the MCU’s Nick Fury. While the Hollywood actor loves making movies, he does get irritated sometimes and argues with directors.
The honorary Oscar winner kept it honest (per usual) on Showtime’s Desus and Mero while promoting his Apple TV+ series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey. He recalled his less-than-conventional leap from theatre to television to film. After spilling his idealistic trajectory from early in his acting career, the Secret Invasion actor was asked about which format he preferred the most. Of course, the iconic actor went with the most lucrative choice.
Movies are easy. The hard part about doing a movie is getting up, and the amount of time that you’re there all day. The average movie day is somewhere between 12 and 16 hours. So, it’s work.
Spending those long hours on set does yield winning results on most occasions. But like any job, filming a movie can be hard and grueling for any person, especially an actor of his caliber. Despite those long hours, Jackson praised the medium while opening up about the difference between filming time and downtime on set.
Out of the 12 hour day, I’d say you work an hour and a half, straight up. Because you go in and do 10, 15, 20 seconds. And I get irritated with the process sometimes because it’s like, we’re going to take four hours to do 15 seconds of movie. What’s the problem? But movies are easy man.
The Shaft actor loves making film, just not having his time wasted for only minutes of footage. Of course, most of the wait could be chalked up to varying reasons, including production set-up, script changes, and other on-set issues. But it seemed the acting veteran was okay with everything.
While Samuel L. Jackson was okay with the long on-set hours, he had another gripe about filming movies. Jackson prefaced his complaint by saying he has had an exciting time collaborating with directors throughout his illustrious career. The Oscar nominee got straight to the point by saying,
I bump heads with directors from time to time. Because I have a thing in my head, I see a movie before I do it. I don’t argue with some of them, because some of them I know they know what they’re doing. But sometimes people get in over their heads.
While the MCU star was honest about his assessment, he did give some grace to filmmakers. Sometimes, an actor’s vision might differ from a director’s, which can lead to some clashes. Jackson wouldn’t be the first actor to clash with filmmakers over differing takes on scenes. Having differences with directors hasn’t stopped the Hollywood icon from getting jobs and putting asses in seats. He has multiple upcoming movies coming in 2022 or beyond. In the meantime, viewers can watch The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey and the best TV shows on Apple TV+.
