Learning from the master

Step forward the highest-grossing actor in movie history - no, not Harrison Ford, but one Mr Samuel Leroy Jackson.

Speaking at an intimate press conference in London to promote his new film Coach Carter, the king of cool is quite calm about the whole thing.

Clad completely in black - black leather jacket, black shirt, with a silver necklace and his trademark Kappa hat - he simply oozes attitude.

And at an imposingly athletic 6ft 3ins tall, he doesn't have to do much to command the attention of the room.

He also lets slip that, while he's in London, he's going to do an episode of Extras, Ricky Gervais' new show, as he's a "big fan" of The Office.

Could he have his finger any more on the pulse?

"The highest-grossing accolade is a dubious kind of honour," he begins in response to someone's initial congratulations.

"I guess it's a new watermark for someone to reach. But, now that it's there, hopefully it will mean something in the history of cinema and for my legacy, now it's done. I'm proud of it."

Of course, he's been helped towards this massive total by his appearances in The Incredibles and the new Star Wars trilogy, but Samuel's ability is undoubted.

Having been waylaid by a drug addiction, he finally cleaned up his act and went to work in small parts in films like Coming to America (in which his character robbed the spoof McDonald's restaurant), Sea of Love and Goodfellas, before beginning a career-altering roll in four Spike Lee films.

But for the folks of my generation, he finally erupted onto the screen, good and proper, in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 classic Pulp Fiction, as Jules.

The speech in which he quoted Ezekiel was a key part of the accompanying CD soundtrack and, as such, went on to become ultimate cult material.

In fact, he has said in the past that he still has to repeat it at least three times a week for fans.

Coach Carter is another starring role for Jackson, and he's absolutely the best thing about the film.

A worthy drama based on the true story of a high school basketball coach who insisted that academic achievement take priority over winning matches, it's another showcase of his screen presence.

Speaking in a very measured way, Jackson explains: "I had a lot of teachers who were very challenging to me in a specific way in high school, only because the majority of teachers I had were ones who had taught my mother and her brothers and sisters. I understood what their plans were for me and their hopes, so I was held to a different standard.

"I realised early on that doing things that made these people proud made me feel better, and I worked harder to please them and please myself, because it's a really great feeling to have someone, especially an authority figure, put their arm around you and say 'You did a good job'.

"Through my successes, they have succeeded vicariously. The few times I've seen my life story on E! the American entertainment channel or whatever, these very same people are there talking about the things I did when I was a kid, how proud they were of me then and how proud they are of me now."

Was it difficult to play a man who's still alive and kicking, and will therefore see how you have represented him on film?

"I never thought about it. Ken was around a lot. He was on set pretty much every day and, when I met him for the first time, I was a lot more interested in finding out the character of the man and his conviction of his beliefs.

"Beyond that, I didn't try to emulate him or imitate him in any way. I just tried to get the honesty of the scenes which were in the script.

"I never thought about the film falling into clich, only because it's about more than just winning, and winning at all costs, which is what most of these stories are about.

"This is about a guy who was inspiring kids to enrich their lives, so that, when the winning was over, they would still have something - they would have a foundation to work from.

"His suits don't cost as much as mine did but he does have a tendency to wear a flamboyant tie. That's the one thing we adhered to all the time - we were always trying to find a more outrageous tie because that seems to be his trademark. But yeah, he actually coached in a suit. It was amazing to me to find out that he never went to practice without a shirt and tie on.

"I've always been concerned about what happens to athletes after they finish playing a game. We read a lot of stories in America about college and people who are cutting corners, or people doing their schoolwork for them or stories about guys who play professional sports but can't read.

"It makes a difference in terms of who these people are and where they're going when they don't have an education.

"To have a story like this one, where you have a guy who lives in a win-at-all-costs society, who is willing to sacrifice that winning, just so the kids can learn a more valuable lesson about what has to happen when your glory days are over, is unusual.

"I think that's the one thing that separates this from the other stories we have seen about sports."

Obviously, the film is as much about the boys who make up the team as their coach. Did Samuel feel any pressure to be a role model for them?

"The kids and I had a really healthy relationship and I figured it was incumbent on me to be more of a leader by example rather than the things that I said to them. So I was constantly the first person on set - always knew my lines, always knew theirs.

"I was also worried sometimes, only because they were having so much fun - they'd play basketball at every opportunity, every time they'd say cut. I wanted to let them know that there was work to be done, that we had to get it done in a specific amount of time, but that we could have fun while we were doing it, and, if you had a question to ask, not to be ashamed to ask it.

"There's a lot of fun to be had making a movie, but there's also a tremendous amount of work that you have to do and that other people have to do also.

"Hopefully they learned to respect the crew, to respect themselves, to respect their fellow actors, while watching me do the things that I did.

"I try to know all the names of all the people working around me. I talk to them every day. I'm not the kind of actor that comes on set who you're not allowed to look at or speak to - you know there are actors who are like that.

"I tried to keep them from falling into the bad habits that a lot of them had heard about. Hopefully, I was able to do that."

As everyone who's anyone knows, Samuel's next film, which will be out this summer, is the final instalment of the Star Wars films, The Revenge of the Sith. Is that the type of film he'd like to include on his CV as he gets older?

"I am part of the Triple X franchise as well as that other little franchise which is about to come to an end. Having that is a great thing, but I'm at a point in my career where I need to do things other than action movies.

"I read a lot of things, so if there's an interesting detective who solves things mentally, more so than physically, I may be interested.

"I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose the things that I do. I read six or seven scripts a week. Out of those, I find maybe four a year that interest me and I get to do those films and tend to keep myself busy that way.

"Everybody knows how old I am he's 56 and doesn't look it - at all and I don't want people to be saying, 'Wow, a 50-year-old guy just beat up a 23-year-old dude'. That's not the reality. And I like reality."