The actor shouted and the embarrassed reporter “we don't all look alike!”

Feb 11, 2014 07:22 GMT  ·  By
Reporter mistakes Samuel Jackson with Lawrence Fishburne and catches flack from the actor
   Reporter mistakes Samuel Jackson with Lawrence Fishburne and catches flack from the actor

Sam Jackson went off at a TV anchor who mistakenly confused him with fellow African-American actor Lawrence Fishburne on a recent interview for KTLA. The anchor's name was Sam Rubin and he received quite the grilling from a visibly ticked-off Jackson.

Rubin was in the middle of an interview for promoting Jackson't latest film, Robocop, when he decided to ask his guest about his Super Bowl commercial. The commercial he had in mind was the one Lawrence Fishburne did for KIA when he reprised his role of Morpheus from “Matrix.”

It took Samuel a couple of seconds during which he seemed confused by the questions, but when all the block fell into place, he immediately told off Rubin.

“You're as crazy as the people on Twitter. I'm not Laurence Fishburne. We don't all look alike. We may be all black and famous, but we all don't look alike. You're busted.”

Rubin could be seen looking very embarrassed by the incident and tried to quickly recover by moving on to the next subject, but Jackson didn't let him off the hook. He went into a full rant, listing all the other famous black actors he was not.

“You're the entertainment reporter for this station? And you don't know the difference between me and Laurence Fishburne? There must be a very short line for your job,” Jackson comically quipped.

When Rubin tried to move the discussion towards the “Robocop” movie, Samuel fired back “Oh hell no! Really? I'm the other guy. There's more than one black guy doing a commercial. I'm the ‘What's in your wallet?’ 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.”

Although he can be seen smiling throughout the interview, Jackson was clearly annoyed at this huge mix-up and decided to continue grilling the reporter.

“I have actually never done a McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial. I know that's surprising,” Jackson added on a more serious, somewhat racial note.

Finally, the interviewer got around to talk about the movie when Jackson relented and said “I'm the only black guy in ‘Robocop’ that's not a criminal. Except for Michael K. Williams.”

After the entire incident, Sam Rubin made a formal apology to the actor for “what was a very amateur mistake,” as well as “anyone else who was offended” by watching the interview.

Rubin said that he prided himself on knowing what he was talking about, unlike some of the other people in the industry, but now he's going to have to rethink his position on celebrity news.