An actor can study the Meisner Technique and the Stanislavski Method, spend hours rehearsing Shakespearean citations, attend workshops from Los Angeles to Moscow, hole up for days watching nothing but Brando movies — yet that can still all be for naught. For as much as success in the business of show comes down to practice-practice-practice, there are some things that cannot be taught. The intangible quality of presence, that movie-star charisma that sets the silver screen ablaze with nothing more than a grin, separates the undervalued character actors from the immortal film idols. You’ve either got it or you don’t. Samuel L. Jackson has got it.
Everything the actor touches becomes unmistakably his, through his distinctive vocal cadence and the toothy grin that sells sarcasm and sincerity with absolute believability. Doesn’t matter whether the movie he’s performing in is good or bad (2015 alone saw Jackson make appearances in Kingsman: The Secret Service, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Barely Lethal, Chi-raq, and The Hateful Eight), the actor only has one setting: Samuel L. Goddamn Jackson. Stephen Colbert made comments to this general effect last night when introducing a new segment wherein the esteemed actor works his singular magic on classic quotes of the movie world.
Taking some lines in a soulful new direction, charging others with his trademark fury, Jackson laid claim to famous soundbites from The Graduate, The Lion King, and most hilariously, Dirty Dancing. Much like Morgan Freeman or Jon Hamm, Jackson’s one of those actors with a voice so silky-smooth, most folks would put up good money to hear it recite the phone book. But how’s this for a million-dollar idea: start selling recordings of Jackson doing table reads of classic scripts, but he does all the voices. Imagine Casablanca, but with Samuel L. Jackson in falsetto doing his best Ingrid Bergman.
