Samuel L. Jackson Had No Idea He'd Be Playing A Jedi When He Signed On To Star Wars
Samuel L. Jackson is cool. This is not new information, of course. If you somehow don't agree, let me remind you that when Jackson played the role of Jedi Mace Windu in the "Star Wars" prequels, he was able to request and receive a purple lightsaber, a color that had not yet been seen in a "Star Wars" movie. Not only that, but the one he got has "bad mother******" etched on the side. How many people get that experience? Not only that, but he was in the films in the first place, merely because he said he wanted to play a role. Obviously, they gave him the role because he's a great actor, but there are many great actors. There is only one Samuel L. Jackson.
So, he requested a role and got it, and asked for a purple lightsaber and got it. Those are some real-life Jedi powers if you ask me. What's crazy to think about is that Jackson didn't know he'd be playing a Jedi when he was first interested in a role in the prequels, according to issue #55 of "Star Wars Insider." In fact, he was willing to play any role he was given if he got into the film.
'I was pretty much willing to be a stormtrooper'
According to the interview in "Star Wars Insider," Jackson asked George Lucas indirectly through a media appearance. He said:
"I pretty much campaigned to be in this movie. I knew he was shooting it, and folks ask you a lot who are some of the directors that you haven't worked with that you want to work with. I generally don't think about things like that, but I knew he was doing this film and I was doing this interview show in London, so I said, 'George Lucas. He's doing some Star Wars movie and I'd really like to be in it.' Apparently, somebody told him."
This person was casting director Robin Gurland, who spoke to Lucas about it. Jackson said he was "pretty much willing to be a stormtrooper, just as long as I knew I was in the movie." He said he didn't even mind if no one else knew he was there. However, the role was kept a secret even from him until he got to the set. Jackson said, "Once they started fitting Jedi robes on me, I was like, 'Hey who is this guy? This is gonna be cool.' So there was no way I was not going to do it."
This is a level of awesome that has rarely been achieved by anyone, and I'll die on this hill. So how did he get a purple lightsaber when no one had one before?
'Yeah, but I want a purple one'
Jackson told the story of how he got his purple lightsaber during an appearance on the British talk show "The Graham Norton Show" in 2013. He said he'd done scenes for the first film, and "it was great." However, when he came back for "Episode II — Attack of the Clones," and found out about the big arena Jedi battle scene, he had a request. As Jackson told Norton:
"We had this big arena fight scene with all these Jedi and they're fighting or whatever, and I was like, well, s***, I want to be able to find myself in this big ole scene, so I said to George, 'You think maybe I can get a purple lightsaber?' And he was like, 'Lightsabers are green or lightsabers are red.' 'Yeah, but I want a purple one. I'm like the second baddest Jedi in the universe next to Yoda.' He said, 'Let me think about it.' And when I came back to do reshoots, he said, 'I'm gonna show you something. It's already caused a s***storm online.' And he had the purple lightsaber."
What's even cooler is that, during the episode, Norton pulled out one of the purple lightsabers that was being sold at the time. Sandra Bullock, who was on that episode as well, joked that her son would love that lightsaber. He gave it to her, of course. Jedi are the best.
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