Samuel L. Jackson’s role reversal
It’s he who chased down “Unicorn Store.”
In Hollywood, some call it the ultimate favor to star in your friend’s first movie.
Except Brie Larson didn’t cash in her chips to get pal Samuel L. Jackson in “Unicorn Store,” her directorial debut, streaming now on Netflix.
Nope. Jackson, who would later help power “Captain Marvel” to billion-dollar success alongside Larson, asked her.
“I kind of begged her to be in the movie,” Jackson, who met Larson while shooting 2017’s “Kong: Skull Island,” tells USA TODAY. “I heard about it, and then my agent let me read it. And I knew she was chasing some other actor.
“So when I saw her the next day at work after I read it, I said, ‘You know you’re never going to get that other actor to do your movie, right?’ She’s like, ‘What do you know about my movie?’ And I was like, ‘I read it last night and I can’t believe you didn’t ask me to be in it.’ ”
Larson laughed, Jackson recalls, and exclaimed, “I didn’t ask you because I thought you’d say no, and I didn’t want to be disappointed!”
In “Unicorn Store,” Larson plays Kit,
an artist whose fanciful, sparkly paintings earn her derision at an art school that promptly kicks her out. Directionless, Kit gets a depressing temp job at a PR firm, which seems like a path to nowhere until she starts getting mysterious invitations to “the store,” a
pop-up manned by an eccentric shopkeeper (Jackson). And it’s a store that sells real unicorns.
What specifically made Jackson want in?
“Oh, her!” he says. “We bonded when we were doing ‘Kong.’ It was a stressful movie to do. Lot of stuff going on – we were in all these remote locations. It was difficult.
“There was no cell reception, so people didn’t have time to isolate. We had to be in touch with each other and talk. We commiserated about all kinds of stuff. And we just got really tight.”
(And no, he did not give the Oscar winner specific advice when it came to becoming an Avenger.)
Larson tells USA TODAY in 2017 that getting behind the camera for “Unicorn Store” felt symbolic.
“The idea of directing is not about success for me personally, it’s about putting more pieces on the board,” Larson says. “My hope is that people watch the movie, and women can watch it and they can either go: ‘Wow, I can’t believe she did that. I want to do that.’ Or you can look at it and go: ‘She did that?! I can do better than that! I’m up for the challenge.’
“Because even though I’m someone who is constantly challenging themselves, there are still these parts of me that are like, am I allowed to do this? Am I allowed to be a free creative person and just try? I’m realizing as time goes on that I am, and so I’m hoping other people get that outlet.”