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SAMUEL L JACKSON:
“I just wanted to do a comedy, I guess because I hadn’t done one in a while. And it was an interesting opportunity to meet Eugene and be in that particular space. I like watching him on screen, and I loved watching him on SCTV, and just do something that wasn’t as heavy as the film that I’d done before or the film that I had to do next, and kind of enjoy myself and have some fun and laugh every day.”
EUGENE LEVY:
“When I got the script and I looked at it and it was a two-hander, and I was one of the hands, I said, ‘Who’s playing the other guy,” and they said, ‘We don’t know yet, but we want you on board.’ I said, ‘That’s a nice switch.’ It wasn’t until I ran into Sam at the Today Show, I was promoting A Mighty Wind, and he came off the elevator like he knew me and said, ‘Hey, Eugene, how you doin’, Sam Jackson. I hear we’re working together on The Man.’”
JACKSON:
“Eugene and I are from the same place, interestingly enough, because he did SCTV and I did theatre for so long. We both learned how to develop characters and to work in an ensemble, so that when we work we do know how to complement each other, because it’s the same thing that we’ve always done, especially when it’s character to character, it’s great.”
LEVY on being the lead in a movie:
“I was daunted by it. I’m not used to it. I don’t like the responsibility. I like popping in, scoring and getting out, that’s what I’m used to. I wasn’t looking for it, [it wasn’t like] I now want to star in movies.”
JACKSON on not breaking up during filming:
“Actors spend a lot of time off-camera while they’re shooting somebody else’s close-up, so I get to laugh a lot while that’s going on. Then when the camera is on me I just do my job. But it was great to watch the evolution of these two characters. Andy is the kind of guy who in his wildest dreams would never meet somebody who even looked like Derrick Vann.”
LEVY on working with Samuel L Jackson:
“The only thing I had to go on was his screen image, which is kind of a tough guy, so when we started working together I didn’t want to screw up too badly. It was a little intimidating the first couple of days, but that quickly went away and we had a blast.”
JACKSON on the possibility of a sequel:
“Gene and I laughingly talk about that, but it depends on how much money the movie actually makes. If it makes enough money, and people like it, sure, we’ll do it because it’s set up perfectly for it, especially as Andy has a outstanding warrant for his arrest in Turkey. There are lots of possibilities there.”
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THE CONCEPT:
