ADDICTED TO ACTING

He doesn’t come bearing the Sidney Poitier mantle, as did Denzel Washington. Nor did he get his start from another art form, a la comedian Eddie Murphy or rapper Will Smith. But Samuel L. Jackson is what some call a Hollywood rarity: a working black actor. Indeed, according to Variety, Jackson is the busiest star of the past decade, proof of how the film industry has changed since the first wave of movies featuring largely black casts aimed at black audiences arrived 30 years ago. In his latest effort, Jackson revisits the 1971 blaxploitation classic “Shaft.” Directed by Gordon Parks, the original starred Richard Roundtree as the title character, a tough, sexually voracious and politically astute private detective.

“Shaft was the icon of the ‘70s, and Sam is the millennium man,” says John Singleton, who directed the updated version. “He’s not like all those other black heroes we’ve seen who are, like, ‘black white men.’ Sam is the classy guy who can also talk s---.”

Jackson has always been something of a contradiction, a Morehouse College graduate who battled a serious drug problem, an acclaimed theater actor who honed his craft in plays by August Wilson before appearing in early Spike Lee films and then bounding into view with an Oscar-nominated performance as Jules, the Jheri-curled, Bible-quoting hit man in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” Today, the acclaimed character actor is one of the industry’s most successful stars.

He is about to push the envelope with “Shaft,” a possible franchise vehicle but also his first major studio film without a white co-star--a gamble for the actor, who has been savvy in charting his career, knocking off three, four, sometimes five films a year that range from small independents, such as “Eve’s Bayou,” “The Red Violin” and the upcoming “Caveman’s Valentine,” to glossy studio fare, including “The Negotiator” with Kevin Spacey, “Rules of Engagement” with Tommy Lee Jones and the upcoming “Unbreakable” with Bruce Willis and directed by M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense”). Jackson’s wife of 20 years, actress LaTanya Richardson (“Losing Isaiah”), has said that shooting back-to-back films is his addiction since he kicked a cocaine habit 10 years ago. Jackson sees it differently. “I like my job,” he says with a shrug.

At 51, he bears the marks of any aging baby boomer. He’s an avid golfer during his rare downtime, and he’s under doctor’s orders to cut his cholesterol with a semi-vegetarian diet. The family lives in Encino, where they moved to in the early ‘90s after Jackson put in 18 years onstage in New York. The couple’s only child, daughter Zoe, graduates from high school June 15. “Shaft” opens the next day.

Arriving at Campanile for this interview, Jackson strolls through the sun-washed dining room wearing reading glasses, a cell phone headset and his signature Kangol cap. Over a plate of linguine with clams, he launches into a candid and frequently funny discussion of his career, his childhood in pre-civil rights Chattanooga, and why Hollywood has been an unexpected haven for his skills.

Q: Why revive “Shaft” 30 years later? Is [that character] still a relevant hero or is it just for the camp value?

A: This isn’t a remake of “Shaft,” because we have Richard [Roundtree] again playing Shaft in this. I’m just his nephew [who also happens to be a tough detective named John Shaft]. So there’s space to create a character that’s mine. We needed Shaft during the civil rights struggle because he represented the people’s struggle against The Man. But we’re not in those times now. We need a different kind of hero, so my character is not that guy. He’s still smart and tough but he doesn’t need to rail against the system that way.

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Q: How is your Shaft different?

A: Shaft was more than just a black private dick. He’s an icon because he was also this sex machine; he makes love to women. That’s a lot of who Shaft was. But in this, I think I get to kiss a girl once and the rest of the time I just physically abuse people. My Shaft is a lot more violent. I guess (laughing) because I’m sexually repressed.

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Q: Was the sex angle a problem? There are a lot of action films with black heroes but not too many mainstream movies feature black-on-black romance.

A: There are a lot of problems on any set, but our problem stemmed from the fact that a lot of different people had different perceptions of what this movie should be. I had one idea, John [Singleton] had another and Richard [screenwriter Richard Price] and Scott [producer Scott Rudin] had another. And a lot of those ideas didn’t meet, so there were [he pauses] small beefs. But I don’t think it’s a secret that Scott is known for stuff like that. I mean, Richard writes great cop stories but I kept saying the basic premise is that Shaft is a black private dick who is also this sex machine. But they were like, ‘Yeah, but where do we start the story?’ Then, with all the violence, I said we’ve got to get him out of the police force and make him a private eye or we’re going to have issues like police brutality on our hands. We got that part right but we never did get around to the sex part.

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Q: You didn’t have any second thoughts about reviving a blaxploitation film?

A: Blaxploitation exploited the black audience dollar, so it’s a correct term that way, but they didn’t exploit the talent. They were being paid and had an opportunity to work, and some of them came out of that period with careers and some didn’t, but the better ones survived.

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Q: This is a big movie for you, the first major studio film you headline without a white co-star. It is also a possible franchise vehicle. Who’s the audience--blacks, or is there crossover appeal?

A: Come on, the black moviegoing audience is huge, especially in the summer, and if you look at this year, you’ve got “Shaft,” Eddie Murphy’s “Nutty Professor II: The Klumps” and Martin Lawrence’s “Big Momma’s House” coming out within a few weeks of each other. It’s the battle for the black dollar! Let’s see: Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence and Sam Jackson. Where do I stack up on that list? Uh, somewhere like third. Luckily, Will [Smith] doesn’t have his movie [“The Legend of Bagger Vance”] opening until August.

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Q: You’re scared of a couple of comedians and a rap star?

A: Look, I excite people in interesting kinds of ways but Eddie and Martin do something that I don’t. They’re funny guys, and if people have a choice between a really funny comedy, an action picture or a drama, they’ll take the really funny comedy because people want to be entertained, and movies are basically entertainment.

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Q: So race doesn’t come into it?

A: Sure, but Eddie has transcended race. Martin is still a “black comedian,” he’s still race specific, but Eddie is just “a funny guy.” He’s like Will, not black or white, just green.

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Q: Do you have to have that crossover appeal to be a success in Hollywood today?

A: Yeah! There are more black actors, black writers and black directors working now than ever, but I still have to go into a room with a producer or director who hasn’t thought of their character as not being white and convince them that I can play it, and sometimes, like in “The Negotiator,” they can wrap their minds around it and sometimes they can’t.

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Q: You’re not the highest-paid black actor working in Hollywood but with a [reported] $5-million fee for “The Negotiator,” you’re close.

A: Do I make that? (Laughing) Let’s call my agent and find out what I make. I think I make more than that now, but I had to get over that whole thing about compensation levels. It will never be fair because there are too many other factors in this industry that determine your worth besides how well you do your job. So, no, I don’t make $12 million and I certainly don’t make $20 million. But then a lot of the actors I respect and consider peers--like Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Dustin, Pacino--don’t make $20 million. They’re fantastic actors but they’re not making $20 million.

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Q: You work more than they do, making three, four movies a year. Why do you work so much?

A: The average person goes to work every day except for maybe two weeks of vacation a year. I do it and everybody says I’m a workaholic, but what’s the difference? Plus, it’s not like I’m digging ditches or sitting in front of a computer all day. I’m doing a job where, if I felt like it, I could literally go to sleep. “Oh, Sam’s asleep in his trailer? That’s great!” (Laughing) Wouldn’t you go to that job? I mean, as an actor, you act. When I was working in New York, we did Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off Broadway, readings, all kinds of stuff, so it doesn’t occur to me that I shouldn’t do whatever strikes me. So, no, I don’t think: “I’ll do two studio movies and an independent this year.” It’s more about the stories.

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Q: You lobbied to get roles in “Jurassic Park” and “Star Wars” because they were “great stories?”

A: I just wanted to be in “Star Wars” and I was fortunate enough to be in “Jurassic Park.” I was still auditioning for movies back then, and there wasn’t even a script, just the novel, so I had to sit in a room with Steven [Spielberg] and read the book and he was like “faster, faster,” and I thought I’m going to start stuttering because I do that sometimes. With George [Lucas], I just had a meeting with him and he said, “You’re a good actor and I’m sure there’s something for you but it might be just the captain of the queen’s guard who says ‘Look out, run.’ ” So I was floored when I got the Jedi counsel role. But sure enough, the guy who wound up playing the guard role was black.

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Q: That movie took a lot of heat for its [allegedly] racist portrayal of Jar Jar Binks. How racist is Hollywood these days?

A: When I go to Europe, people go, “When you and Morgan and Denzel get together, do you talk about how racist Hollywood is?” What makes you think we meet? Oh, yeah, the “Black Actors Meeting” every month. (Laughing) “Morgan, who dissed you this month? Denzel, how about you? What job did you not get?”

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Q: OK, but you said it yourself: You still have to lobby for roles that were originally written for a white character. So race is still an issue?

A: Look, the minute you cast me in a role, race becomes an issue whether you mention it or not. In “The Negotiator,” you don’t have to say “black cop,” but the minute you looked at Danny Roman you saw “black cop,” and it affects the way the audience thinks about the character because of our preconceptions about ethnicity.

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Q: Which are what these days?

A: That we expect black cops to be tougher on black perpetrators because they’re embarrassed by them. You may not have that preconception but I have that. You may think that black cops abuse white suspects because they’re in power. Then there’s that whole thing of do white cops like black cops? And are there Aryan cops? Or say I play a lawyer. Am I Johnnie Cochran or Chris Darden? (Laughing) Because those are the two black lawyers we all know. So, yes, things are tainted by our perceptions of race.

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Q: So how do you explain the fact that every white suburban teenager tries to act “black” today?

A: Well, integration worked a little too well for some people. It’s interesting because we were always taught to be you, to act white, to speak properly and have certain goals, and now rap music sells primarily in the suburbs and dudes come by my house with pants sagging and big shirts, “Yo, wassup,” and these are kids wearing yarmulkes. Or you watch some of these TV shows today and all those kids talk like they’re black. I don’t know if that’s really what you want to be doing. I don’t think that’s going to get you that far in the boardroom. But, yeah, integration worked, and I guess I bear some responsibility. I get big respect from kids in suburbs. When I go through airports I hear, “Yo, Sammy,” which I hate. Or I get “Pulp Fiction” references or even Kangol references, people going, “Where can I find those hats, I can’t find those hats.” Go to Compton or go to Harlem.

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Q: How different is that from your childhood, growing up in the South before the civil rights movement?

A: In Chattanooga, there were only two black schools so everybody knew everybody, and at the time a lot of guys were going to jail. I had guys in my 7th- grade class who were 17, 18 years old who had gotten out of reform school. We had, like, grown men in school with us, and they used to take our money or you had to do their homework for them. So you know ‘em and a lot of them lived in my neighborhood. “Sam from Lookout Street? Yeah, I know him. I know his mama. Leave him alone.” But people weren’t killing each other then over “disrespect.” Old people got respect. We didn’t.

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Q: How did you get into acting?

A: [Laughing] I started doing it for all the wrong reasons--sex, drugs and cheap thrills. I went to Morehouse College in Atlanta, and they didn’t have a theater program so I was over at Spelman, the all-girls school, where [laughing again] suddenly I had access.

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Q: You met your wife there. Was she impressed with your budding acting talents?

A: No, I was horrible. She and her theater friends laughed at us. But they were also scared of us because we were thugs.

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Q: Thugs?

A: Thugs! [Laughing] Me and my friends were thugs who happened to go to college. We were revolutionaries, militants, and we had guns and would fight people.

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Q: You mean in terms of political demonstrations?

A: Yeah, and just being on the streets of Atlanta. You had to protect yourself, and I was not your typical Morehouse student. I hung out with guys who lived in the projects across from the school, and those guys didn’t know I went to college for, like, a year. They used to rob the students, they’d sneak into parties and start fights, and one time, they jumped this guy who lived on my floor and he saw me standing in the back and said, “Help me, Sam.” Those guys knew me as “Slim” and they were, like, “Slim, do you know him?” “Yeah, actually I go to school here.” They couldn’t believe it. They let him go but I got called into the dean’s office.

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Q: Weren’t you also part of a radical campus organization that held the school’s trustees hostage one time, sort of like what your character did in “School Daze” [which was set at Morehouse]?

A: That was during my junior year. Yeah, I was basically that guy that Spike [Lee] cast me as in “School Daze,” the “black boy.” It was actually kind of interesting because there were a lot of guys in my class who should have been in jail. One professor told me that my class had a lot of criminals, guys who might otherwise have been in jail, but this was 1966 and everybody who could was going to college because of Vietnam.

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Q: You talk about jail but you were your high school student body president.

A: I was also a candidate for Annapolis, so what’s your point?

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Q: That you were part of both those worlds--the street and academia.

A: You kind of had to be. It was OK to be smart. I was just a lot more afraid of my parents than I was of the guys who gave me grief about being an egghead. My parents expected me to go to college and not go to jail, which I never did. I’ve never been arrested and I’ve never been to jail.

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Q: You say “my parents” but you were raised by your mother and your grandparents after your dad abandoned the family.

A: I grew up in a house with a lot of women--my mom, my aunt, my grandmother, my cousin--and my grandfather, who was like my best friend. He had all these brothers who all had wives and kids, so I hung out with these very cool old men who were strong figures. So, yeah, my mom wasn’t with my dad but that didn’t mean that I didn’t see a married dynamic in action.

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Q: You don’t harbor any anger toward your dad? He quit the Army so he wouldn’t have to pay your mother any child support.

A: I never really knew him when I was living at home, and years later, when our paths crossed when I was on tour, we kind of talked about what went on, and I knew he was out of his mind. He was that kind of guy who had a lot of kids [with different women]. He had a daughter who was younger than my daughter with some 16-year-old girl. He was crazy. I just knew I was never going to be that guy.

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Q: Is that one reason why you and your wife have such a strong marriage?

A: You don’t think about it that way. I did used to wonder how people could just walk away from other people. That I don’t understand. It’s not like LaTanya and I stayed together “for the kids.” We’re good friends and it’s cool but she had the same dynamic I had--raised by her grandparents--and she felt very strongly about Zoe having two parents.

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Q: Given your stable upbringing, how did you get into drugs?

A: The majority of men in my mother’s family have died of some form of alcoholism, and I have the gene. I have an addictive personality, meaning I do things to excess. When I bought a six-pack, I drank six beers. When I bought a bottle of wine, I drank the bottle. I can’t have just one of anything.

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Q: You actually learned to act while stoned?

A: I never learned to do it any other way. I had a professor who used to tell us, “If you’re going to do it, do it like the great ones,” and the great ones got blind. So we started out in the morning drinking wine or bourbon and got to an 8 o’clock class and then all afternoon we worked in the shop, building sets while drinking more and smoking a joint, and by the time 7:30 rehearsal rolled around we were stoned. But because we rehearsed stoned, we knew the lines so we could perform stoned.

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Q: How did you get into rehab?

A: There was a time when I thought I would drink alcohol and smoke reefer until I died, but smoking cocaine brought me down pretty quick. I started smoking [cocaine] because snorting cocaine deviated my septum. I had a hole in my nose. I could stick a match up one side and pull it out the other. I never got it fixed because it’s sort of like my reminder.

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Q: A lot of actors go in and out of rehab. What was your experience like?

A: I hated it. People who don’t know you messing with your head every day in group therapy, and the counselors were doing this tough- love thing, which was not working for me.

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Q: So what happened?

A: The whole time I was in rehab, I was calling Spike about playing Gator, the crack head in “Jungle Fever.” I told him, “Look, I’ve already done the research!” But Spike was like, “I don’t know,” and the rehab counselors didn’t want me to do it. “It’ll set off the triggers in you.” But I said, “If for no other reason than I never want to see any of you again, I won’t be picking up a crack pipe.” I shot “Jungle Fever” two weeks out of rehab. I didn’t even need any makeup. I was still detoxing.

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Q: Why have you been able to kick your problem while a lot of actors in Hollywood can’t?

A: A lot of stars you hear about bouncing back and forth to rehab have the “well syndrome,” where you get up one day and go, “I think I’m OK today.” That’s the beginning of your downfall, and I hope I never get that. So every morning, I roll out of bed onto my knees and say, “God, grant me the strength not to drink or take drugs this day.” And that’s it. I get up and can carry on.

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Q: So how was it to act sober? Your career seemed to take off with “Jungle Fever.”

A: I worried about it in rehab, but it was pretty awesome. All this stuff that my wife told me I hadn’t been doing as an actor--because acting stoned, I was always kind of cloudy--suddenly I was able to get in touch with the emotions I was trying to convey.

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Q: Coming from the theater, do you approach a character differently than someone who has only worked on camera?

A: Yeah, because [in theater] you discover ways of dissecting a character in the four- or five-week rehearsal period, so by the time a lot of us reach the cinema, that process can be compressed. We know how to ask ourselves the right questions that allow you to see a fully fleshed character instead of somebody just standing there saying words. Until I came to L.A., I had never met anybody who hadn’t done a play. You can just tell by looking at their face that they don’t have a clue about what they’re doing. Forget about the intent of a scene; you’re shooting a page and 1/8th a day--that’s 30 seconds of film--and sometimes they don’t even know the intent of that 30 seconds. That costs a lot of money to come to work and waste 12 hours shooting those 30 seconds.

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Q: Was it your performance in “Pulp Fiction” that launched you? A lot of people thought Jules was a black villain we hadn’t seen before.

A: People made so much of that movie and deservedly so--it kicked me to another place, it kicked John [Travolta] to another place, and it respected the audience in a way that most movies don’t, so people really embraced it. But the real thing happened with “Die Hard: With a Vengeance,” which I was shooting when “Pulp Fiction” came out. That was the highest-grossing movie that year, and Bruce [Willis] told me that after “Die Hard” my life would change, and it did.

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Q: Most people seem to remember you in Tarantino’s follow-up film, “Jackie Brown,” because of Spike Lee criticizing you for your character’s excessive use of . . .

A: The “N word?” Yeah, that was kind of funny, considering Spike is the yardstick for the average black and even he qualified it by saying, “Well, I use the word at home but I don’t use it that much.” Look, we all know people like Ordell [Jackson’s character in the movie]. Spike does, and I grew up with guys like Ordell, guys who use the word to mean everything from an endearment to a greeting to an invective. It’s just how he talks. I hear Spike’s next movie is in black face. It’ll be interesting to see how he justifies that one.

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Q: You fell out with Spike because of that controversy and also a salary dispute when he wanted you to do “Malcolm X.” Was that the beginning of the end for the black renaissance in Hollywood?

A: Spike does what he does. I just didn’t want to work for scale. You know, we all used to be like a little repertory company that showed up [to work with him] every summer, Giancarlo [Esposito], Bill Nunn, Fish [Laurence Fishburne], and one by one everyone fell out for whatever reasons.

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Q: Now you’re one of the busiest actors in Hollywood. Do you ever think about directing?

A: When the phone stops ringing often enough, I’ll direct a movie. And it always stops ringing. I doubt if Sidney [Poitier] is turning down scripts every day. If he is, he wouldn’t have so much time to play golf with me. Look, I marvel at the fact that last year, I made more money than my mother made in her whole life. Now, I’m getting my star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame the same day that “Shaft” opens. As a kid, I spent so much time going to the movies and fantasizing about different worlds, I knew I would never keep living in Chattanooga. It’s funny. I was thinking about that the other day, about the first time I came out here, in ‘69, and I used to hang out on Hollywood Boulevard, looking at those stars, never even thinking of putting my name on one, and now I’m going to get one. (Laughing) I wonder where they’ll put me. I don’t want to be way down there by the ugly stuff. I want to be up in the middle, where people will see it.