Guess what, mainstream media? Not all black people look alike. One Los Angeles, California-based reporter learned that the hard way on Monday when he mistook Samuel L. Jackson for Laurence Fishburne live on the air.
Jackson was doing a satellite interview with KTLA in Los Angeles to promote his new flick RoboCop when entertainment reporter Sam Rubin asked him about his Super Bowl commercial.
Problem? That was The Matrix star Laurence Fishburne, not Jackson. And he was not amused.
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Jackson got totally medieval on his a**. "See, you're as crazy as the people on Twitter," he scolded. "I'm not Laurence Fishburne!"
"We don't all look alike! We may be all black and famous, but we don't all look alike! You're the entertainment reporter for this station, and you don't know the difference between me and Laurence Fishburne?"
"I'm the other guy, 'what's in your wallet,' I'm that guy," he ranted. "There's more than one black guy doing a commercial. I'm the 'what's in your wallet' black guy, he's the car commercial black guy, Morgan Freeman is the other credit card black guy. You only hear his voice though, so you probably won't confuse him with Laurence Fishburne."
"And I've actually never done a McDonald's or a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial — I know that's surprising," Jackson added.
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Rubin later apologized profusely on air, explaining the whole mess was simply a misunderstanding.
"We start right now with the beauty and the occasional pain of live television. First and foremost, I do know who Samuel L. Jackson is. I've interviewed him several times over the years, but never quite like the conversation we just had," he explained.
"I indicated to Samuel that I'd seen him during the Super Bowl, and he thought that I had confused him with the commercial Laurence Fishburne had done for a car company. Of course a Captain America ad had also run during the Super Bowl, but I immediately felt so dumb, I didn't bring that up — and he gave me the shellacking that was well deserved."
"I pride myself on the fact — that unlike a lot of people who do this kind of work — more often than not, I really do know what I'm talking about. But I didn't 30 minutes ago, and I'm really embarrassed about it, and I very much apologize to Samuel L. Jackson and anyone else who was offended for what was a very amateur mistake."
