As much as Samuel L Jackson has many big-budget action movies - “Die Hard with a Vengeance” (1995), “Time to Kill” (1996), “Unbreakable” (2000), “Shaft” (2000) and its reboot (2019), “XXX” (2002), “Coach Carter” (2005), “Snakes on a Plane” (2006), “Kingsman: The Secret Service” (2014), “Kong: Skull Island” (2017) and “Glass” (2019) - under his belt, he isn’t without a few surprises, too.
Did you know that he voiced Lucius Best/ Frozone in “The Incredibles” 1 and 2?
And he returned to do the voice-over in “The Garfield Movie”.
Chris Pratt lends his voice to Jim Davis’s popular lazy, lasagna-loving and flippant cartoon character while Jackson voices a scruffy street cat named Vic.
Harvey Guillén voices Odie and Hannah Waddingham brings a cut-throat Persian cat named Jinx to life.
The star-studded voice-over cast includes Snoop Dogg, Nicholas Hoult, Ving Rhames, Janelle James and Jeff Foxworthy.
In a press interview, Jackson unpacked his character in the animation.
He said: “We're all discovering who he is as the movie goes along. Vic's been around, he's a streetwise street cat that’s Garfield's father.
“Cats have litters too, don't they – they have bunches and bunches and bunches of kids. Guess he got a bunch of other kids somewhere like that, too.
“But Garfield seems to be his favourite, the one he's latched on to right now, or the one who lucked out and got to be an indoor cat, eats a lot, chills around, and has a best friend who's a dog.
“So, I don't know if Vic would have any of those things (in his life) or know what all that's about, but he does watch over Garfield in an interesting sort of way that you find out about as the film goes on.
“He has his own relationship with Garfield that Garfield knows nothing about and he's trying to create a connection between him and this cat Garfield that thinks he abandoned them.”
As for what sets this animation apart from others, Jackson shared: “We were trying to figure out the mischief of the character and the street knowledge that he has that allows him to survive in a world like the one he lives in.
“The movie is never really serious but there are moments where the heart of the movie comes through. That's different in terms of the voices and animations I've had to do before that.
“There actually comes a point [in the movie] where there is a poignant moment of a father-son kind of meeting and talking and getting the meaning of what it means to have a significant person in your life that's a father figure and having a significant person in your life that's, you know, a son that you do have feelings for and you miss and you are able to explain yourself to the person that thinks you wronged them.”
On working with Pratt, he added: “He's also adorable, so he's such a great guy and he has this great personality. The nature of doing these things, you're never in the same room doing them.
“You know, I've only done an animation project once while I was actually in the room with one other person for one session, but it never happens.
“So, being able to say that I've been in a Chris Pratt movie. It is gonna be a big deal.”
∎ “The Garfield Movie” is available on DStv BoxOffice