By Gill Pringle
Who do you get to go toe to toe with the greatest monster in film history? Why, the legendary Samuel L. Jackson, of course. Jackson has bestrode modern cinema like a colossus for decades now, leaving behind him indelible turns in the works of Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, and, yes, even George Lucas (say what you want about the prequels, he was among the best things in them). Now in Kong: Skull Island he’s taking on the role of Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard: Vietnam veteran, helicopter commander, and a man with a serious bone to pick with the titular towering ape…
You’ve graduated from Snakes on a Plane to monkeys on an island!
He’s not a monkey! He’s something else! Bigger than a monkey, and his tail’s not as long!
So you’re the Colonel? Can you describe your character?
Army lifer. Probably been in Vietnam since it started. In the film the war’s ending and, for him, a bit of disappointment in the fact that we’re abandoning the effort, and not accepting the fact that maybe we lost the war. Happy that these guys survived it, and they’re going home, and then he gets a call to take these scientists to this island, and he’s kind of happy for one more mission, to be with these guys, fly these scientists in this little thing, and then they get to the island, and they get attacked by this huge thing that’s there. And he essentially becomes Captain Ahab, chasing the white whale. Trying to avenge the deaths of his men.
Are you a fan of the King Kong movies?
Totally! It’s like a kid’s dream! You get to run away from something big, and hairy, and scary, and try to defeat it. And that’s part of what Colonel Packard believes. That no matter how big, or scary, or whatever this thing is, I mean we’re men. We have intellect, and we held dominion on this planet since we showed up! So, there’s got to be a way to kill this thing. We’ll figure it out.
How much do you enjoy location shooting?
I usually enjoy being in a real environment. It gives you some sense of the heat, the terrain, the inherent danger that’s supposed to be around. But with Kong, until you realise that there are other things on the island that are dangerous also, I was always asking the question, ‘How big is it?’ ‘Where is it?’ ‘How fast is it?’ But when I looked at the trailer, I was like ‘How the hell was he sleeping on the island that we couldn’t find him? Where could he be that we didn’t see him, and what was he eating?’ Hopefully, he’s a vegetarian!
You’ve always had a huge affinity for sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes. What is it that has captured your interest?
Mostly the fact that it’s the unknown, or it’s the new and the different. Reading Superman comic books when I was a kid, he was always crossing into some other dimension. It’s funny too, because I used to sit there and look at those comic books and go ‘Oh, these people have got tights, and they’ve got green hair, and they’re wearing boots, and they’ve got capes,’ and now I guess I’m living it! So there was always that, and also a fascination with other places, or places where maybe things do grow so big, that we haven’t found them yet. That it’s not my life every day, and it’s not the same rote thing that you do day in, day out. There’s something out there, that is very different from me, and from my existence. I know we’re here, so, why wouldn’t there be something out there somewhere else? So, they’re probably saying they’re the only things that are out there too, but they probably pass by here a lot more and probably go ‘Nah! We’ll keep on going!’
With that, do you notice that you have an easier time of imagining things that weren’t there on set than maybe the average actor?
Everybody has their own level of imagination. I was an only child, and I spent a lot of time in the movies, I spent a lot of time watching television, but I also spent a lot of time reading! And books give you a greater understanding of how to project something outside yourself, or project yourself into another dimension, world, or whatever space or time that you need to, because that’s what you do when you read! And I’ve done that since I was 3 or 4 years old, and I spend 2-3 hours a day reading, still! I can imagine whatever’s coming, and like they always told me, ‘It’s a grey screen! The more you do, the more we have to do! The bolder you are, or the more afraid you are, we create the thing that co-ordinates to your reaction to it. As much as you want, or as little as you want.’
Is Kong the underdog in the film?
Well, I mean he’s the hero! Unlike in other films, where he was not really the hero, where he’s kind of the picked on thing out of its element. He’s not the fish out of water. We are. We’re in his element, and he’s the hero that the world needs.
Did you draw inspiration from any other like fictional commanders?
Yeah, I’m Gregory Peck. I didn’t have any of that Apocalypse Now crap. No John Wayne, none of that! Gregory Peck!
Based on the trailer, there seems to be some humour in the movie…
You don’t want it to be one note, so… I mean I didn’t know John [C. Reilly] was that funny, because I’m not in those scenes… So, I have no idea what’s going on when John shows up. But we have various little snide remarks that we say to each other, that people will find funny; there’s gallows humour, when you’re in a situation, and everybody’s feeling hopeless, and somebody says something that’s kind of wry, and you get a laugh out of it, to ease the moment, and that’s the trick.
Kong: Skull Island is in cinemas March 9, 2017
