With a subtly intense stare and a genuine aura sense of refined power about him, Jedi Master Mace Windu is a Jedi of distinction and truly at one with the nature and energies of the Force, and confident in his role within the Jedi Council and the Republic leaders they serve- second only in leadership responsibility to Master Yoda himself. Who better to play one of the coolest Jedi ever seen in the saga than one of the coolest men ever to reside on planet Earth: Samuel L. Jackson!
Jackson's enthusiasm for the saga has been a constant since the original film's New York opening in 1977. For EPISODE I he would be on the Leavesden set filming his Jedi Temple scenes over four days and working from six script pages of dialogue revealed only prior to shooting. By 1999, George Lucas was clear to tell Jackson that Mace was a developing character, of which there would ultimately be lots of things ahead for him with the remaining prequels.
"I was doing a lot of interviews for some other film and reporters ten toy ask you questions like, 'Is there any director that you haven't worked with that you've got to work with?' I remembered that George Lucas was about to do The Phantom Menace, so I said, I'd really like to work with George Lucas on this new Star Wars film. And I said it often enough and I said it on a London talk show (the Chris Evans hosted T.F.I. Friday). Somebody heard it and told him and I got invited to the Lucasfilm Ranch. When I met George, I told him, 'Look, I'm really serious. I'll do anything. I'm not trying to be the star of your movie. I'll be a stormtrooper. You can cover my face. Whatever, I don't care. As long as I know I'm in the movie, I'm happy.' George said, 'We'll see what we can do.'"
Samuel L. Jackson - Starburst magazine - 1999
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| Rehearsing a scene with the puppet Yoda. |
"When I got to London the first time, I had no clue who I was going to play until they gave me some pages and saw I was going to be Mace Windu. Who? And then I realized he was talking to Yoda. So when I got to the studio the next day, I saw this Jedi costume and I was s ecstatic I ran out of breath. At last I had an idea of who I was, how to carry myself, and I had a way of being. And I had a reason for being."
Samuel L. Jackson - Dressing a Galaxy - Deluxe edition - 2005
"The first day I showed up I put on my robes and I was standing there looking in the mirror going, "Yeah, I'm a Jedi." Then the guy comes in with a Haliburton briefcase, opens it up and there all these lightsabers in there. He goes, "Okay, pick one". I tried a few out and I was like, "Okaaay, this looks like me." It was kind of a chrome handle with this long, soft rubber thing down the side, and on the inside, where you turn it on, it had this very unique-looking switch. It was very me, very Mace."
Samuel L. Jackson - Empire magazine - June 2002
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