Youch. Yes, Samuel L. Jackson is ubiquitous, practically his own genre and willing to take on work in the high and low arts of any avenue of cinema. Hell, he’s not beyond doing commercials either, and doesn’t need to resort to doing them overseas like some of the world’s bigger stars (like Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney and Brad Pitt). But one commercial Jackson did not appear in was Kia’s Super Bowl ad, which saw Laurence Fishburne reprise his role as Morpheus from “The Matrix” films. But somehow that didn’t stop KTLA Entertainment anchor Sam Rubin, “a multiple-Emmy winner” we’re told, from asking Jackson about starring in the Super Bowl ad. And the reaction he got was priceless.
“What Super Bowl commercial?” Jackson asked kinda peeved after a long pause. “I’m not Laurence Fishburne!” Jackson said pointedly. “We don’t all look alike!” To Jackson’s credit, he seemed to not really be overly offended and found more pleasure in ribbing this so-called “entertainment reporter.” “You don’t know the difference between me and Laurence Fishburne?” Jackson asked in mocking disbelief.
But as Jackson says rather amusingly, and which kind of sums it all up, “There must be a very short line for your job.” Embarrassing. Watch the clip and the original ad below. Christ.
The reporter said something about Marvel before Jackson interrupted. Was he talking about the Captain America Superbowl commercial?
We'll never know since Jackson derailed the conversation before the reporter finished his thought.
That final look from Jackson as the reporter cackles on about there only being two non-criminal black actors in "Robocop" is also pretty heart breaking. I don't think it was so much an honest mistake as it was a symptom of the general "tokenness" that most non-white actors still have to deal with on the vast majority of their gigs.
The reporter made an error for sure, but Jackson took it a bit overboard with continuing to go after him about it and then bring it up again. We all mess up in our jobs every now and then. It was an honest mistake.