Samuel L. Jackson on his classic roles, new Alzheimer’s series

Screen icon Samuel L. Jackson does like to play favorites. Ask him who among the bad bleep-bleeps he has played on screen is his best and he pauses. He frets. He sounds like a man evaluating past loves.

“All of them mean something to me,” he fretted. “In the moment, they’re all the most important character. Even characters I repeat are the most important.

“I’m here in London doing Nick Fury now,” he said. “I repeat him a lot so I know who he is and he’s easy to access. Right now, he’s the man.”

No, over a six-decade celebrated career, it’s Jackson who is the man — he has starred in screen classics including “Jurassic Park,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Jackie Brown,” “Star Wars,” “Kill Bill,” “The Incredibles” and the “Avengers” franchise.

These days, he is the star and executive producer of the new Apple TV+ series “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” based on Walter Mosley’s acclaimed novel of the same name. Over six episodes, which debuted on Friday, Jackson is Ptolemy Grey, a senior who loses his trusted caretaker and must turn to an orphaned teen named Robyn (Dominique Fishback), who must deal with his dementia. They figure out a treatment that will restore Ptolemy’s memories, which brings them on a journey toward new truths.

Next up is “The Marvels,” in which he plays Nick Fury again opposite Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel.

Review-Journal: Sam, you’ve said that this was a very personal story because several members of your family have suffered from Alzheimer’s.

Samuel L. Jackson: I watched them change, deteriorate and become different people over the years. It has been an honor to tell their story or listen to them. You have to understand that the things in their past are more their present than what’s going on in their everyday life. It was also important to me to give an audience an opportunity to know that they aren’t the only people who have watched their loved ones deteriorate that way.

Describe the importance of a young caregiver like Robyn in this story.

She looks at my character like he is a worthwhile individual even though a lot of people discard him. She also helps him realize that the memories that he has should not be abandoned. She tells him it’s OK to be the way he is now, yet it’s also OK to remember. Robyn comes in when his family kind of discards him, and they begin this journey.

You’ve called this a fanciful story.

It is fanciful. It’s based in the reality of, yes, someone who has lost himself over the years … lost himself to himself. Then, he rediscovers things about himself, and Robyn helps him discover things about himself. We allow people to come out of the heaviness of the story of who Ptolemy is and into the lightness of what his life had been. He had a full, fruitful and lively life. There’s also a mystery that has been bothering him that’s the nagging, dragging thing that disturbs him more than anything else. It revolves around the idea that he has not fulfilled his purpose in life.

Was doing this new Apple series a way to reflect on aging in real life?

Ptolemy fits into the real-life chronology of my life in terms of honoring all those people in my life who had Alzheimer’s. It’s every time I walk into a room and I can’t remember why I walked in there or I can’t remember the name of an actor in this movie. All those things mean something to me.

Yet, you still exude this cool that can’t be defined. What is the secret?

You don’t think about being cool. That’s the secret. I just get up in the morning and do the work.

Is it fun when someone quotes one of your film lines to you?

Actors go through their whole career and no one remembers one line they said. I have people constantly saying, “You know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in France? Tell them Vincent.” (Answer from Vincent Vega: “A Royale with Cheese.”)

How do you choose roles now?

It’s all about trying to find something different in each role. You don’t want to revisit because the audience wants to see something new. But I’m not driving myself crazy. In the end, it’s all make-believe. I can say that I love an intelligent character who chooses words well. It’s fine if he thinks he’s the smartest person in the room.

Are the bigger characters more fun?

I think this also proves something to audiences, which is that I don’t just play the same (expletive) all the time. Yes, I like the loud ones. But there’s something to be said for playing a quiet one.

What is your idea of an ideal Sunday if you’re not working?

My wife and I love going to the movies. I love the kind of movies I liked as a kid. I love to sit in a dark movie theater to just get away from it all. And there’s also golf.