AVC: So you don't feel the need to compensate by making something that people are going to take more seriously?
SLJ: There's no plan there. I read the script, and—I guess the Internet rumor is that I took the job without reading the script. It's sort of true, but not in the way they said. I didn't receive the script, see the title, and go "Snakes On A Plane, wow, I'll do it," and throw it away. I was reading the trades, and it said "Ronny Yu to direct Snakes," and I was like, "What is that?" Ronny and I had done a film together [The 51st State], so I emailed him and said "What is it?" And he said, "Poisonous snakes get loose on an airplane." And I'm like, "Wow, think I can be in that?" And he was like, "You really want to be in it?" And I said "Yes, I really want to be in it." So, here I am. He's not, but here I am, so it's cool. [Yu left the project and was replaced by Cellular director David R. Ellis. —ed.]
AVC: What do you consider your most underrated film?
SLJ: 187.
AVC: Why is that?
SLJ: It was a film about something that was going on then, and is still very prevalent now. About students abusing teachers in school every day, and kids being intimidated when they go to school, or being scared to go to school. Then a teacher got killed by a student in New York City, and the guy running the studio didn't want it to feel like they were glorifying that incident by advertising the film. Unfortunate. A lot of people have seen it on video, and they wonder, "What happened where, and how did this film slip through the cracks?" And it's still a fact that teachers are being assaulted at an alarming rate every day in schools. They get intimidated in that situation, or lose their zest for teaching.
AVC: You're doing the voice of God for an audiobook version of the Bible. How does the voice of God differ from the voice of Samuel L. Jackson?
SLJ: Not very much.
AVC: How do you get into character for that?
SLJ: I don't. I just kind of read it and hope it sounds omnipotent. There's no formula for that. [I don't] say "I'm going to be God now, how do I need to sound?" I don't know. Nobody knows. The good thing about that is that God's not talking to people as much as he used to in the Old Testament, so nobody really knows if he sounds like me or not. So I can get away with it.
AVC: The singer for Cobra Starship, which did the song "Snakes On A Plane (Bring It)" for the film's soundtrack, has talked about how he's using "snakes on a plane" as a metaphor, not just taking it literally. Do you think it works as a metaphor?
SLJ: Pretty much, yeah.
AVC: For what?
SLJ: [Pauses.] Um… wow… Going to hell in a handbasket. Anything that's unfathomable and impossible to escape is pretty much snakes on a plane.
AVC: If you had to do either films like this or dramas for the rest of your career, which would you choose?
SLJ: Hm… a steady diet of… These.
AVC: Why?
SLJ: Because I'd rather be entertaining than poignant. People have enough drama in their lives already. They don't have enough things to make them smile.
AVC: What's on your mind these days apart from making movies?
SLJ: Not a lot. Trying to find more space to play golf and work on my game.
AVC: How long have you been golfing?
SLJ: About nine years now. And, uh… figuring out my time in London to do this film, 1408. When that's done, I go straight to Toronto to start another film, Jumper, so I'm busy working with my makeup artists and my hairdresser and the director and other people to create my look for that film. I get the chance to do something different again, and not necessarily look like myself.
AVC: Your look is kind of hard to disguise.
SLJ: Yeah, but I want to be different.
[For a conversation with Snakes On A Plane director David R. Ellis, including his explanation of why Snakes On A Plane wasn't screened for critics, click here.]
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