Samuel L. Jackson Discusses His Personal Connection to ‘The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey’

Samuel L. Jackson currently has 197 acting credits on IMDB. He’s become a staple in Tarantino films, Marvel blockbusters, and the Star Wars universe while also starring in some of the greatest movies ever made. And yet it’s The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, an Apple TV+ show Jackson has made in the fiftieth year of his decades-long career, that feels like his most vulnerable work. As series creator Walter Mosley and Jackson told Decider, much of that vulnerability comes from Jackson’s experience of watching his own loved ones suffer from dementia.

“I know the subject matter is tough for a lot of people, and it’s a tough thing to experience and watch a loved one go through. But, you know, going to work for me is always a joyful place,” Jackson said. “I enjoy being on television, movies, and I try and find the joy in the process of acting. Being able to get up and go and create is a wonderful and joyous thing. That’s the energy that I bring to work.”

Adapted by the book of the same name, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey follows an elderly man who has been diagnosed with dementia and befriends an orphaned young woman named Robyn (Dominque Fishback). When Ptolemy (Jackson) is given an experimental drug that can cure his Alzheimer’s, his life changes. For a brief time, Ptolemy can atone for the mistakes he made in the past, avenge his murdered nephew, and find his buried treasure. But this second chance comes at a hefty cost.

When it came to bringing his novel to the screen, Mosley relied on Jackson’s connection to the material. “The best, probably, support that I have is Sam, who had a lot of experience with dementia in his family and who has an extraordinary ability to act,” Mosely told Decider. “These are two people who are way out on the edges. And they find each other and they’re able to build a relationship that gives both of them hope.”

For Jackson, who has long been a fan of Mosley’s novel, his intimacy with the source material made this project easier rather than harder. “In order to embrace a character, you have to enjoy who that person is or enjoy the process of being in that person and presenting it to the world. That’s what I had with Ptolemy,” Jackson said. “I enjoyed being able to look in a mirror and see what my makeup artist and my hairdresser created, which allowed me to go to work and be a full guy and have fun doing the things that I needed to do to make him live.”

As personal as this project is, it’s not a sign for everything to come in Jackson’s career. At the same time that The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey — a prestige drama from Apple TV+ — is airing, filming for Marvel and Disney+’s Secret Invasion has just concluded, which will find Jackson once again taking on the role of Nick Fury. When asked if he sees himself leaning more toward blockbuster hits or smaller, more personal projects, Jackson answered in three ambiguous words: “I don’t know.”

“The business itself is changing and evolving. I am particularly interested in the streaming service and how it works… It’s changed the meaning of what we do and how we do it in terms of the length of projects or the kind of projects that are out there,” Jackson said. “But I don’t have a particular plan in place. I’m just going to keep doing what I always do: I keep reading stuff.

“If I read it and it’s a TV project, there’s no stigma anymore, “Jackson added. “It used to be, ‘Well, you can’t be a movie star and a TV star.’ It’s like, ‘Well, why not?’ I always thought you could.”

New episodes of The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey premiere on Apple TV+ Fridays. 

Watch The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey on Apple TV+