With “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey”, the American star puts a unique spotlight on senility. He talks to us exclusively about this series that is so close to his heart.
He has reigned supreme in Hollywood for three decades, and this is perhaps the most personal of his roles. With “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey”, Samuel L. Jackson breaks the ultimate taboo of the world of fiction: that of senile dementia, which he carries with conviction and without pathos. And for good reason: “Alzheimer’s fell on my family like a curse,” explains the 73-year-old actor from Los Angeles. My mother, my aunt, my uncle, my grandfather paid the price. I wanted to testify, in my own way, on the subject. »
Adapted from the eponymous novel by Walter Mosley by the author himself, the drama in six scenes makes Jackson an old man by the wayside, a drifting nonagenarian in his seedy Atlanta apartment, lost in his tattered memories… Until ‘on the arrival of Robyn, an orphan teenager who comes to watch over him in place of her nephew, who has mysteriously disappeared. Mourning, absence(s), memory or segregation: all of this and more is discussed in this electric ode to life. In the midst of the chaos, the duo formed by the dumped grandpa and the alert young woman (Dominique Fishback, already spotted in the series “The Deuce”) works wonderfully. Transmission case: when Fishback arrives on the set, Samuel sends the actress’s most intimate convictions flying. “Dominique had worked on his role down to the smallest detail, to the point of making a 30-page Powerpoint presentation! he says, his eyes bulging. My approach is quite different: I show up, I have fun, I play by feeling. “With a single watchword, hammered to the youngest by the eldest: “Let go! The acting profession is above all fun. »
Tarantino’s favorite actor appears more vulnerable than ever
Beneath his eternally jovial airs, Samuel also conjures up fate with this score. “I live with a visceral fear of becoming senile,” he admits. I’m genetically predisposed to it. Hence my attraction to long monologues! Their learning comforts me in the idea that I do not completely lose the ball. Mosley had made the most intimate of his writings a tribute to his parents, reduced to dementia at the end of life. In his wake, and at the extreme opposite of his roles as sinister killer or superhero in the Star Wars and Marvel franchises (which he will soon find again), Tarantino’s favorite actor appears more vulnerable than ever… Even if our remark makes him jump: “All my characters have their flaws! he disputes. On the contrary, Ptolemy is endowed with a staggering inner strength. He reminds me of the members of my clan whom I accompanied until the end of their lives. As terrible as the ravages of this disease are, I am proud to have been there for them. »
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The man, who entered the Guinness Book of Records in 2011 for having garnered the most revenue at the world box office, is also the essential reason why the general public will finally look into this thorny question. The magnetism of the actor will do the rest, Jackson embodying fifty subtle shades of Ptolemy Grey, a character who, over the course of a personal quest, makes a Faustian pact with medicine. By borrowing from the Eastwoodian wisdom or the humanism of a Robert Redford, these “Last days” above all form a universal narrative. And a mirror sent back to the absurdity of the time. “Writing text messages is good. Discussing with your elders is better! hammers Jackson. As a child, I learned more from my conversations with my grandfather than from anyone. The taste for life first passes through the elders. »
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