The greatest actor-director duos in film
Samuel L. Jackson defends Quentin Tarantino while slamming Joe Rogan's N-word use
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Samuel L. Jackson has starred in several of Quentin Tarantino's films and has thus heard the N-word around him a lot, but he draws the line when it serves no purpose for art. In a recent interview the actor spoke on disgraced podcaster Joe Rogan's use of the racial slur—after a compilation video of him using it on numerous occasions surfaced—and criticized his defence that the clips were "taken out of context."
“Say you’re sorry because you want to keep your money, but you were having fun and you say you did it because it was entertaining,” Jackson told the Times UK. “He is saying nobody understood the context when he said it, but he shouldn’t have said it. It’s not the context, dude—it’s that he was comfortable doing it,” he said.
Jackson added that the word is only appropriate when it's "an element of what the story is about," adding, "A story is context—but just to elicit a laugh? That’s wrong."
Of course, he had to address his director companion at this point. “Every time someone wants an example of overuse of the N-word, they go to Quentin—it’s unfair,” he added. “He’s just telling the story and the characters do talk like that. When Steve McQueen does it, it’s art. He’s an artiste. Quentin’s just a popcorn filmmaker." Jackson even said that Leonardo DiCaprio expressed discomfort at how many times his character had to say the N-word in 'Django Unchained,' but he and Tarantino formed a united front to tell him he must.
It only takes one person to make a movie bad, but it takes heaps to make it really good. That’s why when you find something, or rather someone, that works, you don't let them go. Familiarity on- and off-screen is hugely beneficial for actors and directors, as they don't need to re-establish trust and comfort, and they can then challenge one another to grow and change together.
Click through to see more about Jackson and Tarantino, as well the other famous actor-director duos in cinema history.
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