Actor Samuel L. Jackson Confesses His First Thoughts on San Bernardino Attack: 'I Really Wanted That to Just Be Another, You Know, Crazy White Dude

In a recent podcast interview with the Hollywood Reporter, actor Samuel L. Jackson opened up about race relations and politics — and explained his reaction to the terror attacks in San Bernardino.

When reports of a shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino started rolling in, Jackson said he hoped it wasn't an act of terrorism on U.S. soil.

“I can't even tell you how much that day the thing that happened in San Bernardino ... how much I really wanted that to just be another, you know, crazy white dude, and not really some Muslims," Jackson said. "Because it's like: 'Oh, sh*t. It's here. And it's here in another kind of way.’”

In his most recent film, "The Hateful Eight," written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, Jackson plays a Union veteran-turned-bounty-hunter in post-Civil War Western America. Jackson also stars in the new film, "Chi-Raq," a musical-dramedy about gang culture and gun violence in present-day Chicago.

"The Hateful Eight" will be released nationwide on Jan. 1, and has garnered Jackson some awards season buzz.

During the podcast, Jackson compared innocent Muslim-Americans who are being viewed with increasing suspicion to how young black men are treated in the United States. Tarantino, whom Jackson has worked with before, has recently been in the news for participating in an anti-police brutality march in New York.

Jackson’s reputation for controversial roles and strong language arose from regularly starring in movies directed by Tarantino and Lee. In the podcast, Jackson pushed back on criticism of Tarantino’s prolific use of the N-word.

"It's bullsh*t,” he said. "What word do they want him to use?"

He noted that Lee and others use the N-word countless times in their films, so why shouldn't Tarantino, who is not black but embodies a "black consciousness.”

"How do you describe me in a Tarantino movie if there are rednecks?" he rhetorically asked. He added that Tarantino always casts him as intelligent characters—usually the smartest guy in the room.

Jackson attributed the epidemic of police brutality to PTSD suffered by war veterans who return from fighting abroad and enter the police force.

Then he clarified:

"Now, not every cop in the world is guilty of that—there's good cops and there's bad cops,” he said, arguing that, “until we get somebody policing from the inside out, those things that happen from outside to us are gonna continue to happen.”

Jackson, who occasionally golfs with Donald Trump, said the Republican candidate is running on "hate," but said he believes Trump isn't the only candidate that is.

"There are some other people that aren't as open about what he's saying that are running also … that have just as much ill-will toward the common man," Jackson said, "and not just the common black man.”

Jackson said he plans to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

"I'm forever a Democrat, you know, and I'm gonna vote for Hillary,” he said. “I mean, I love Bernie — Bernie's a man of the people — but he can't win. So I gotta cast my vote for a person that can keep those other people from winning, okay?”

As for his own career, Jackson has no plans to retire any time soon.

"I got a job I love, you know? Painters get up and paint. Writers get up and write. If [all] actors could get up and go somewhere every day and act, I guarantee you they'd be the happiest people in the world. And I am."

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H/T: Hollywood Reporter

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