Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Samuel L Jackson interview

SAMUEL L Jackson talks about the joy of being given more to do with his character, Nick Fury, in Marvel sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier but how he treats every movie with the same serious attitude. He also reflects on getting to grips with his signature eye-patch in the film, why he avoids doing stunts himself and what he thinks of the proposed clash between Captain America 3 and Superman versus Batman. He was speaking at a UK press conference…

Q. If you could put any other of the characters you’ve played into a Marvel film, who would you pick and why?
Samuel L Jackson: I’d put Mitch Henessey from The Long Kiss Goodnight in there because he’s so child-like and would be in awe of everyone in there. He would claim he had a super power.

Q. Your character has slightly more to do dramatically in this film. Did you enjoy that?
Samuel L Jackson: I approach all of it the same. You show up, you look at the relationships and what’s going on, take it all seriously and still have as much fun as you can on the inside of it. I’m really glad that we saw more of Nick and what happens to him and how he reacts to situations. But as usual he’s always trying to be three steps ahead and then all of a sudden he finds out that he’s been used in another kind of way and it becomes incumbent upon him to find out why and use all the tools that he has at his disposal to make that happen. And as usual a lot of it has to do with subterfuge and diversion, even down to fooling and hurting his most trusted compatriots [laughs].

We actually shot a scene where that’s explained but I’ve been told that it slows the movie down too much! But if you get the DVD and you click on my face, it will allow you to access that scene and you’ll see more of what that means between Nick and Black Widow. But it was a real joy to be able to see Nick’s workplace and find out who he is [a bit more] and to explore some of the issues that come to bear in the conversations that I have with Robert Redford.

Q. Did you pick up any injuries filming this one? There’s a lot of action…
Samuel L Jackson: I use my stuntman extensively. I have no issue with him being hurt. That’s what he’s paid to do and he loves it. He’s from a stunt family. His father was a stuntman, all his brothers are stuntmen, before they eat breakfast in the morning their dad kicks them down the stairs. They have to jump out the window! So, I use Chiante more than… my God, he works more than I do sometimes [laughs]! It’s way better to stand there, duck a punch, let them fight and then look up and act as if you’ve just been hit [acts a look of surprise].

Q. How do you cope with the wearing of the eye-patch in these movies, especially as a fully paid up member of the spectacles club?
Samuel L Jackson: You know, I’ve learned to turn my head further. The interesting thing about the patch that I didn’t discover until the first Captain America, because I originally didn’t have very many lines to say… all of a sudden I had dialogue and I would learn it the night before I got to work but I could only see half the page! So, I discovered that I actually had to learn my lines with one hand over my eye to properly absorb what’s going on.

Q. Captain America is going to go up against Superman versus Batman next time around. Have you any plans to up the ante and will you be introducing any new super characters?
Samuel L Jackson: Well, we’re Marvel and we have interesting heroes and things. They’re DC and they have interesting bad guys!

Q. Who is your hero in real-life?
Samuel L Jackson: I look at the young people that put their lives on the line for us so that we do have the freedom to make movies like this and tell stories like this. We do have a volunteer army now; it’s not like people have to. So, all those young people who go out there and put their lives on the line, and go to different countries… they’re there to make sure that we can do what we do. I admire that greatly.