WENN
Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee‘s wives brought the two old friends back together over dinner after a spat drove the director and his one-time leading man apart.
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Jackson appeared in a number of Lee’s films before the two men fell out, but their wives remained friends and plotted to get the two men at the same table.
The actor tells the new issue of Playboy magazine, “Spike’s wife Tonya, and my wife, LaTanya, have been good friends for a long time and my wife just acted in a TV film Tonya produced and wrote, called ‘The Watsons Go to Birmingham.’
“So our wives would interact often, and we would all end up going for dinner together. Our relationship healed over those dinners and conversations.” The rekindled friendship landed Jackson a role in Lee’s remake of one of the actor’s favorite films, “Oldboy.”
He adds, “He told me at dinner he was going to remake Oldboy, and I was like, ‘Can I be in it?’ I watch the original ‘Oldboy’ eight, nine times a year. Every time I meet someone who hasn’t seen it, I order it and give it to them.
“Spike told me that, aside from the leading role, I could have any part… Working with Spike was just like we’d never stopped. He’s very efficient, knows what he wants and doesn’t get in my way artistically.”