Samuel L. Jackson says Pulp Fiction changed his life: ‘People started thinking I was the coolest mother f—er on the planet’

With the words “a royale with cheese” and a wallet embroidered with Bad Mother F—er, Samuel L. Jackson became a star.

Jackson was working steadily by the time he booked Pulp Fiction, often appearing in the films of Spike Lee, but he didn’t become a true screen presence until he donned Jules Winnfield’s black-and-white suit in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film.

Reminiscing about the project at a 30th anniversary screening that opened the 15th annual TCM Classic Film Festival, Jackson explained, in his inimitable fashion, how the film altered the course of his career.

“It changed my life drastically,” he said. “In that I think this was the particular role that all of a sudden people started thinking I was the coolest mother f—er on the planet. So, I’m happy with that.”

Jackson, 75, also recalled that the change in his status was particularly noticeable when the film premiered at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. “Bruce [Willis] and I flew to Cannes,” he remembered. “And I was with all these guys, and we got out of the car, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, John Travolta! Oh my God, Bruce Willis! Oh my God, who is the Black guy?’”

Besides the fact that he plays Jules to perfection, Jackson has another theory as to why the role proved to be such a breakout for him and a boost to the careers of the film’s other cast members. It’s all in Tarantino’s copious dialogue.

“Watching a lot of films, you realize at a certain point that an actor only talks one-third of the film,” Jackson explained. “The rest of the film is people doing sh–. So when I read that script, I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ I immediately flipped it back over and read it again to be sure I wasn’t making myself crazy, and I wanted to be in this movie so bad that I was making up that it was that good.”

He continued, “But it was. And part of the reason was because those characters were talking to each other and about things, sometimes innocuous things, but they were talking. I was coming from the theater, and that’s what we do in the theater. We don’t have the advantage of Get in the car and drive. I was very overjoyed that I was going to be able to run my mouth that much in a movie.”

Now, we get to share in that joy every time we watch.