Q 1

PLAYBOY: Everybody has an opinion about the war. Now you're courting controversy with the film Home of the Brave, with 50 Cent and Jessica Biel, about American soldiers struggling to readjust after serving in Iraq.

Samuel L. Jackson: Home of the Brave is interesting because it's not necessarily an antiwar film, even though it has antiwar sentiment in it. Some characters are rah-rah about going back to Iraq, but it's more about people not understanding why they feel alienated when they come home and how they're unable to get rid of guilt about things that happened there or not being able to do enough when they were there. It's going to get an interesting reaction, particularly from people with relatives who have come back from Iraq or went there and didn't come back.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: You turned down Get Rich or Die Tryin' with 50 Cent because of your strong feelings against rappers getting big movie roles. Did things get dicey between you two while you were making Home of the Brave?

Samuel L. Jackson: People tend to think we're beefin', but we're not. We had an interesting conversation about it, actually. He has my phone number. We talk. I have this thing about acting being a craft, something some of us spent time learning to do. When they ask me to validate the career of somebody who comes from another venue by co-starring in a film with him, the number one insult is to say this other person is the actual star of the film. They want you to prop that person up by co-starring with him. That means if I take a lesser role and let them put that person's name above mine, I'm condoning it. I can't do that, because other young actors are doing the same thing I did, pounding the pavement day after day, going to school to get a degree in drama or theater, going on audition after audition, trying to get a job. I would be doing a great disservice by saying someone who hadn't done all that is good enough to be on-screen with me.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: But over the years you've worked in movies with many rappers.

Samuel L. Jackson: I've done a couple of movies with LL Cool J, but he was on the series In the House for years, so he spent some time learning the craft. I like him, and he's smart. He'd come to my trailer and say, "Okay, we have to do this scene, and I need to figure out how to get from this place to this place. Can you help me?" I'd do it. I had the same thing with Dana--Queen Latifah--when she was in Sphere and with Busta Rhymes when he showed up in Shaft. It has nothing to do with my disliking 50 Cent. Asking me to prop up a person who comes from another venue is like somebody saying to the Lakers, "Sam Jackson wants to play with you guys tonight. We're going to give him a uniform, and we're going to start him." What the hell are the Lakers supposed to think?

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Being so respected for your work in such movies as Jungle Fever, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, how much heat did you take for tackling Snakes on a Plane?

Samuel L. Jackson: People criticized me for doing the film, like, "How can you do something so lowbrow?" Because it's entertainment, that's how. When we went to the movies as kids, we didn't go to re-create our day-to-day problems; we went to escape into Westerns, war pictures, horror movies, gangster pictures, romances, comedies, monster pictures. We went to scream, chase each other, laugh and have fun. That's why I did Snakes on a Plane.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: Do you think you were criticized because we're not accustomed to seeing first-rate actors in purely fun stuff?

Samuel L. Jackson: Bullshit. I see nothing wrong with taking time off from my "heavy dramatic schedule" and doing something that allows me not to have to think about what my motivation is except, There are snakes on the plane, and they're going to kill you if you don't kill them! Let's see if we can survive. Let's scream and holler and have fun.