Samuel L. Jackson, the special surprise buried at the end of every movie, does sometimes deign to appear in the regular, pre-credit portions of films. For instance, way back in 1994, he acted in a little movie called Pulp Fiction, to some small acclaim. You might remember a speech his character, Jules Winnfield, delivers in that movie, about shepherds and righteous men and a fellow called The Lord. Well, it turns out Jackson remembers it, too.
He proved that last week on BBC One’s The Graham Norton Show, when host Norton asked him to pretend he was giving a rendition of the Ezekiel 25:17 speech to a young man picking his teenage daughter up for a date. The show’s crew dim the lights as Jackson turns to camera, and ominous music plays in the background. The theatrics are honestly unnecessary, though, as Jackson’s baritone voice rips into the famous speech—starting quickly, almost conversationally, then slowing as he reaches the meat of the piece’s simmering rage. It’s a nice reminder that, 20 years and more than 100 movies later, there’s a reason Pulp Fiction catapulted him into a lucrative career of post-credits stardom.