Samuel L. Jackson Very Nearly Wasn't Cast in 'Pulp Fiction'
Samuel L. Jackson has played the MCU's weathered spymaster Nick Fury for over a decade on the big screen, and is bringing more nuance than ever to the character right now in Marvel's Secret Invasion. But when you look back at his expansive resume, there is one other role which is even more closely associated with the actor: Jules Winfield, the philosophical hitman from Quentin Tarantino's 1994 crime classic Pulp Fiction.
Pulp Fiction is, of course, rich in ensemble performers across its four disparate storylines, from John Travolta and Uma Thurman to Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames. But Jackson's performance—and famous monologue in the climactic diner scene— is an integral part of what makes that movie so enjoyable to revisit time and time again.
Which is why it's so wild to think that he almost never got the gig.
In a recent Vulture profile, Jackson recalls how he was essentially offered the part of Jules by Quentin Tarantino, only to then have to compete against future Boardwalk Empire actor Paul Calderon in a "fucking acting contest" to secure it.
"Quentin sent me the script, told me, 'Jules is yours,'" he said. "I went in and they just wanted to hear the character. I read it, and they were like, 'Amazing. Job's yours'... Then I hear, 'Well, there’s this other actor who came in to audition for Pulp for another role, and he asked if he could read Jules, and we let him. And we kind of love him. So we need you to come back and read it again.' Now I’m like, 'What the fuck? What do you mean, read again?'"
To add insult to injury, the person running lines with Jackson in the scene mistook him for another Black actor—Laurence Fishburne—which did nothing to balm Jackson's mood prior to the audition.
"He was going, 'Hi. Mr. Fishburne. Glad to meet you.' I was like, “What the fuck? Who is this motherfucker?" he continued. "Well, I go in the room and we’re doing the scene. And the first thing we’re doing is the killing room scene: 'Do you speak English? English, motherfucker, do you speak it?' And he’s so busy watching me, he gets lost in the fucking dialogue. And I’m like, 'What the fuck? You’re fucking up my audition here!' I want to slap him. By the time we finish and we do the end scene in the diner where I do the last scene, me and Tim Roth, they were like, 'Thanks. Blah, blah, blah.'"
"I slammed the script down. I slam the door and leave. Go back to the airport, because I had to work Monday, come back to New York. Then I see [Pulp Fiction producer Lawrence] Bender. And he’s like, 'We were so going to cast this other kid until you did that last speech in the diner. ' And I was like, 'Really, motherfucker? So I had to go through all that, after you told me I had a job?'"
Of course, all's well that ends well, and Jackson thankfully got the part (Calderon ultimately played Paul, a bartender at Marsellus Wallace's club).
He would go on to collaborate with Tarantino again in Jackie Brown, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, as well as making a cameo in Kill Bill, Vol. 2. But he remains tightlipped about whether or not he has any involvement in the upcoming The Movie Critic. When asked in his Vulture interview whether he will be appearing, Jackson simply offered a "No comment" and laughed.
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