Samuel L. Jackson Discusses His Take On Nick Fury
Samuel L. Jackson is a fixture in American cinema as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). After having first portrayed Nick Fury in Iron Man (2008), he has returned to the MCU ten additional times, most recently appearing in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). While most actors know their time with a character is limited, Jackson not only chooses to but also advocates to return as the founder of the Avengers time and time again.
Jackson recently sat down with Collider to discuss his new Apple TV+ series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey and made time to slide in his take on Nick Fury. When asked about returning to a character after time apart, Jackson said that the comfort of Fury is because he’s been portraying him “for so long, I know what he sounds like and I know how he thinks and how he feels.”
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Searching “Samuel L. Jackson Nick Fury interview” in any search engine yields a plethora of results, showing the actor's love and appreciation for the character. The actor has made his position clear that he loves Nick Fury, he knows Nick Fury, and he’s willing to return to him anytime. Jackson is so familiar with the character that he has made script edits while shooting:
“The writer knows what he wants to say, but he hadn’t said it, so let me help, and I’ll write it. And then, the next day when I go in, I’ll pull that person to the side and say, ‘Look, I know you wrote this, but this is a better way to say that as Nick Fury.’”
Fortunately, the writers seem to be responsive, but honestly, who would argue against the expertise of Sam Jackson?
Speaking with obvious fondness for a character he sees as part of himself, Jackson explained what he loves about Nick Fury:
“He’s a guy who has no superpowers, who’s in charge of people who have superpowers, and they let him be. That’s something special about him. He’s a leader of men that are very different, in another kind of way. It’s very satisfying to be a part of a world that I admired for so long when I was a kid.”
Many of us grew up admiring the characters we read about in our favorite comic books. It can be a tall order to portray a character in live-action who has stood strong in a franchise for generations. Jackson is well aware of this challenge:
“It means something to be part of a cultural canon that people revere and that they respect, in another way.”
Thus, it is easy to hand over the reins to a revered character like Nick Fury when the man portraying him finds it “very satisfying to be a part of a world that I admired for so long when I was a kid. I still buy comic books. I still go to comic book stores. I still read them.”
Although Jackson will still come back to roles like Fury, he knows that once a project is finished, it is time to put them away for a while. The characters he builds, however, have a way of sticking around, even after filming has wrapped. “They all stick with you forever,” he says, “In a specific kind of way. That’s always a way to tap back into them or to think about them and care about them and love them. But you have to move on to the next story.”
One thing is for certain, Sam Jackson certainly is not done with Nick Fury yet and we cannot wait to see where he will turn up next. (Perhaps in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?)
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Source(s): Collider