Samuel L. Jackson

**Samuel Leroy Jackson** is an American actor and producer. He appears in *Extras* as himself in the episode 'Samuel L. Jackson'.

Jackson is a highly prolific actor, having appeared in over 150 films. One of the most widely recognized actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him the highest-grossing actor of all time (excluding cameo appearances and voice roles).

He rose to fame with films such as *Coming to America* (1988), *Goodfellas* (1990), *Patriot* *Games* (1992), *Juice* (1992), *Menace* *II* *Society* (1993), *True* *Romance* (1993), *Jurassic* *Park* (1993), and *Fresh* (1994). Jackson continued gaining greater prominence for his collaborations with director Spike Lee in the films *School* *Daze* (1988), *Do* *the* *Right* *Thing* (1989), *Mo' Better Blues* (1990), *Jungle Fever* (1991), *Oldboy* (2013) and *Chi-Raq* (2015) and in the Quentin Tarantino films *Pulp Fiction* (1994), *Jackie Brown* (1997), *Django Unchained* (2012), and *The Hateful Eight* (2015). For his role in *Pulp Fiction*, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2021 it was announced by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences that Jackson will be the recipient of the Honorary Academy Award.

His other roles include *Die Hard with a Vengeance* (1995), *A Time to Kill* (1996), *Hard Eight* (1996), *Eve's Bayou* (1997), *The Red Violin* (1998), *The Negotiator* (1998), *Unbreakable* (2000), *Shaft* (2000) and its 2019 sequel/reboot, *Coach Carter* (2005), *Snakes on a Plane* (2006), *The Other Guys* (2010), *Kingsman: The Secret Service* (2014), *Kong: Skull Island* (2017), and *Glass* (2019). Jackson also won widespread recognition as the Jedi Mace Windu in the *Star Wars* prequel trilogy (1999–2005), and later voiced the role in the animated film *Star Wars: The Clone Wars* (2008). With his permission, his likeness was used for the Ultimate version of the Marvel Comics character Nick Fury; he subsequently played Fury in 11 Marvel Cinematic Universe films, beginning with a cameo appearance in *Iron Man* (2008), as well as guest-starring in the television series *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.* He will reprise this role in the upcoming Disney+ series *Secret Invasion*, which is set to premiere in 2022.

Jackson has provided his voice for several animated films, documentaries, television series, and video games, including Lucius Best/Frozone in the Pixar films *The Incredibles* (2004) and *Incredibles 2* (2018), Whiplash in *Turbo* (2013), the title character of the anime television series *Afro Samurai* (2007), and Frank Tenpenny in the video game *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas* (2004). In 2016, Jackson served as the narrator of the acclaimed documentary *I Am Not Your Negro* based on James Baldwin's writings.

## Personality

Not much is made apparent about Samuel L. Jackson's fictionalised personality in *Extras*, other than that he is righteous for standing up for Dan when he seems to be receiving racist remarks from Andy and Maggie. The pair are stunned in awe when he stands up to them, with Andy trying to appease him whilst Maggie confuses him for Laurence Fishburne. Andy, who originally was planned to have speaking lines with Jackson in the film, is promptly kicked off set with Maggie for the incident.

Unlike most other special guests on *Extras*, Samuel L. Jackson does not portray a fictionalised version of himself and his appearance is more of a cameo. He has some of the fewest lines of any special guest in the series, only appearing at the beginning in character in film and once more later when he confronts Andy and Maggie. His lack of screen-time is likely the reason why his fictionalised off-screen personality is not explored as thoroughly as those of other special guests in the series.

## Trivia

* Due to Samuel L. Jackson's busy schedule, his scenes were filmed a month before the rest of the episode was shot. It took him only a day.
* When Maggie meets Samuel L. Jackson, she says he played Morpheus in *The Matrix* (1999), and he corrects her saying it was Laurence Fishburne. The scene is based on the fact that Jackson is often mistaken for Fishburne (and vice versa) in real life. In fact, once during a live interview with Samuel L. Jackson an interviewer made Maggie's exact mistake.