The $250 million rich Marvel star Samuel L. Jackson is undoubtedly one of the most revered actors worldwide. Being an icon, and a legend in his own right, his millions of fans span not only counties but continents. However, MCU’z very own Nick Fury once got quite a severe backlash due to some racial comments he made.
After the massive success of Get Out, he was asked in an interview about his thoughts on the movie. His reply to that question however did not please a lot of his fans, especially the black British actors. Although he claimed that his comment was severely misunderstood, they still felt severely disrespected.
Samuel L. Jackson’s comment on Get Out
Jordan Peele’s Get Out tells the story of an unassuming young African-American man visiting his white girlfriend’s family estate, where her parents, and brother live with some staff. However, he is completely unprepared for the horrors that await him upon arriving there. The movie’s main character Chris Washington was played by British actor Daniel Kaluuya, for which he garnered international acclaim. However, when asked, Samuel L. Jackson noted that he does not understand why British people are cast as African Americans.
Fans took it to mean that his implications with that sentence were less than acceptable. According to them, he disrespected the Black community worldwide by saying that. It felt like he was iterating that the extended global Black community could never fully relate to the horrors and prejudice they suffered in America. Hence, the honorary Oscar-winning actor does not understand the need for British people to be cast as African Americans.
British actors on Samuel L. Jackson’s comment
A lot of fans took this opportunity to express their displeasure saying just how disappointed they were at their idol. Sheila Atim, a 26-year-old theater actor from Essex mentioned that she was in New York during the movie’s release, and although it was told from the American gaze, she never had trouble relating to it. She further elaborated,
“In his interview Samuel L. Jackson said Brits had been interracially dating for hundreds of years, which isn’t true at all. It’s not like we’re all skipping around hand in hand having all these fantastic interracial relationships.”
Joe Langdon, a theater acting student from the Mountview Academy of Theater Arts noted that he has always been a big fan of Samuel L. Jackson, but now he felt quite disheartened and disappointed in him. He said, “When me and my mum walked down the road, people wouldn’t believe that was my mum. They’d think she was a childminder or something.”
As such, he thinks just like he had to face prejudice from a very young age, he feels that Kaluuya might have had to go through similar experiences in his life. He also noted that job opportunities in the UK are quite slim with most shows being period dramas, which he cannot joy because of his skin color. As a result, he always wanted to go work in America, but now he is unsure and feels unwelcome there.
Another acting student from the Italia Conti Academy of Theater Arts, Leah Champagnie said, “It’s basically going back on everything that black actors and the black community have been fighting for,” and that Daniel Kaluuya got the role because of his talent and not because he wanted to go to America and steal jobs from other people. Reiterating Langdon’s point she said that roles with proper representation are already fewer in the UK, so, there was no reason for Daniel Kaluuya to turn it down.
Source: BBC
