Samuel L. Jackson shuts down reporter’s impression: “An impression of a bad actor.”
A reporter’s wobbly Samuel L. Jackson impression earned a reality check from the man himself.
On the red carpet at the premiere of his action thriller The Beast, Samuel L. Jackson got a very public request he’s heard a lot: can anyone actually nail a Samuel L. Jackson impression? When entertainment reporter Simone Boyce volunteered to try hers on the spot, Jackson didn’t sugarcoat his review.
“No, you did an impression of a bad actor trying to do a bad impression of me. That was great if that's what you were doing. But if you were really trying to do an impression of me, that was f****** horrible.”
Before Boyce’s attempt, Jackson said he hasn’t heard a single imitation that truly lands. He even name-checked Jamie Foxx as someone who thinks he’s got Jackson’s cadence down — and, in Jackson’s view, doesn’t.
Plenty of actors have tried their luck over the years. Tom Hiddleston once did a Jackson-as-Loki bit that fans loved online, though Jackson didn’t bring him up during this exchange.
That ‘Pulp Fiction’ verse
If the bar sounds high, consider the muscle memory he’s still carrying around. Marking the 32nd anniversary of Pulp Fiction, Jackson recently posted an Instagram video reciting the killer monologue his hitman Jules delivers before icing a guy named Brett — the faux–Bible verse that’s burned into movie history.
“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.”
The speech, reworked by Quentin Tarantino for the film, remains one of its most quoted moments — and clearly one Jackson can still deliver word-perfect decades later.