The recent release of Jumper finds veteran actor Samuel L. Jackson playing the role of Roland Cox, the leader of a group called Paladins that is out to stop “jumpers” from transporting themselves through time.

Although the film is, as Jackson describes it, “fanciful,” the fictional world of his character drew him to the role. “I like science fiction,” he explains. “I like the idea of someone who has a raison d’être [and]who is actually in pursuit of someone for righteous reasons.”

Being the good guy isn’t the only role Jackson likes to sink his teeth into, however. In his next film, The Spirit, he plays the villainous Mr. Octopus in the big screen adaptation of Will Eisner’s comic book. Good or bad, the character and the plotline just need to be interesting and different Jackson says. “I always like the guy who has the biggest agenda,” he laughs. “I just like the fact that things out of the ordinary are going on and people who have extraordinary abilities are doing them, and we get to portray someone who is different from the people we encounter in our normal, everyday lives.”

With a career that has included such memorable characters as Pulp Fiction’s Jules or A Time to Kill’sCarl Lee, it seems that Jackson’s selection process is working. In fact, fans like his characters so much that he often finds himself fielding requests to quote some of his characters’ lines, a fact that he says he’s grateful for. “There are people who work their whole careers and nobody remembers specifically what role they played, so I’m fortunate in that I’ve definitely done some iconic things,” he says.
–ivory m. jones.

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