Samuel L Jackson
Interview: Samuel L Jackson Talks Home of the Brave
"First you have to figure out what kind of person he was before he left in terms of his stability, the success that he had as a doctor," said Jackson. "Why he would make a choice like that, to go into service and go in the field and do that not just once but twice. What drives him? Why not succeeding in the field is so tormenting to him. Is it because the guys are so young or is it because he didn't have the tools to do his job or whatever? To figure out why a man with all these things going for him, a wonderful family, a loving family because he and his wife are still very passionate towards each other. I'm not sure how successful he is in his passion but he loves her, she loves him. But she knows he's been damaged in a way. It was just interesting to be able to explore the kind of dynamics that a man like that has with friends, families and contemporaries for me."
Having played everything from action heroes to crack addict junkies, Jackson has a system that allows him to transform into anything. "You start with the person. You naturally read the script, read it through a couple times, figure out your relationships with the people inside the script, who they are. And then you start to figure out the things you need to know about yourself to make yourself a whole character before you start to deal with those people. For me, that goes back to starting with some kind of biography that I can create for a character. Where he came from, who he is, what his dreams and desires are. Even sometimes, sometimes you can get bored and you start making up things like what's he like to eat, what does he not like to eat."
With a movie like Home of the Brave, there were former military doctors that Jackson could interview for research. "I guess my greatest revelation was the thing that I was talking about the doctors and the closeness and the immediate nature of medical care that's available to them, and how well they actually take care of these guys. Then the coming home part, yes, the over-medication is really an issue. And the fact that there is no law in place that allows these people who've lost their jobs to come back and get their jobs back. That nobody's going to go to these people and go, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We told him he could have his job back when he came back. I don't care who you've gotta move or what you've got to do but this person needs to be employed again. He was over there fighting for you.' And then that's another problem. People are going, 'Well, you're not fighting for me because they're not here.'"
Jackson is able to put the emotion of a film like Home of the Brave behind him, but once the film is out there, he never knows when he might revisit it. "A lot of times, you've explored an emotion that you don't normally encounter on a day to day basis or even weekly or monthly basis. And when a certain situation comes up, you can see it for what it is a little better. Or when you're talking to people about a situation and they start talking about it, you can go, 'Oh yeah, I remember kind of dealing with that.' And occasionally, you've met some other people on set when you're doing these particular things that will say, 'You know, I had a feeling once about this, about that' and you'll start talking to them and all of a sudden, a grip will come up and start saying, 'I heard you guys talking and I was doing this, I was doing that.' And you find out that the situations are unique to just this particular instance but people find ways of relating to what's going on or they'll say, 'I have a nephew, I have this cousin that's done this, that and the other.' Kind of like when I did Gator in Jungle Fever, everybody came to me and said, 'That's my cousin, my son, my brother, my husband.' Too many people related to that character in a specific way."
Home of the Brave has a limited release this Friday.
For the trailers, posters, stills and additional info, go to the Home of the Brave Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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