BAD MOTHERFUCKER

A revealing look at the unlikely career trajectory of Samuel L. Jackson, from the author of The Tao of Bill Murray.

Motherfucker. “That’s my perfect noun/pronoun/expletive/everything,” says Jackson, that ascended connoisseur of naughty words. By the account of pop-culture biographer Edwards, Jackson is also the epitome of cool, as exemplified by a key scene in Pulp Fiction, with the robbery at the diner: “Stay calm in an emergency. Apply your overarching philosophy to the smaller moments of your existence. Walk in the footsteps of your cool predecessors.” The long excursus on cool is the least interesting single passage of the book, since no one needs to be reminded of Jackson’s habitation of the term. What’s good about it is the author’s exploration of Jackson’s films, decade after decade—and, he reminds, Jackson has appeared in nearly a gross of feature films, “more than Bill Murray and Tom Hanks put together.” Ranking these films along axes such as how much of the pure Sam Jackson experience they yield, Edwards tracks the actor’s rise from “King of the Cameos” to full-tilt stardom, propelled along by the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee. With all those films, it’s easy to forget ones in which Jackson played only tiny parts, such as Steve Buscemi’s 1996 outing Trees Lounge, but it’s a pleasure to see him muscle and sweet-talk his way into films that had no part for him at first. One good example is the Star Wars franchise, in which, to his pleasure, he was made a Jedi knight—and given a light saber with the initials B.M.F. engraved. (See the book’s title for the translation.) Edwards also recounts the films that Jackson didn’t make it to and a few interesting bits of associated trivia: He failed to join the cast of Roots because he “wasn’t African enough or not an exotic Negro,” and for more than two years, he was a stand-in for Bill Cosby on his eponymous show, which staggers the imagination.

“In a fair world, I’d probably have three or four Oscars,” Jackson has said. This entertaining book proves the point.