They have always said that the joy of being an actor is getting to live several different lives within your own, for Charlayne Woodard that has meant getting a feeling of what it’s like to be Samuel L. Jackson’s wife, but also his mother. Or the wife and mother of his characters, anyway.
“I love working with Sam!,” Woodard told CBR, describing the actor as a “friend.” She can currently be seen playing Varra/Priscilla Davis in Marvel’s Secret Invasion. She is the Skrull wife of Jackson’s Nick Fury, but four years ago, with a little help from a wig and aging prosthetics, she was playing his mother in M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass. The actress had already played the mother to a younger version of Jackson’s character in 2000’s Unbreakable.
Woodard is actually five years younger than Jackson, but the director wanted to keep the same actress for both films. She did a convincing job as Jackson’s mother, as she does as his wife in Secret Invasion. “I’ve played his mom twice, in Unbreakable and Glass. It’s great to work with him with my true self,” the actress said of not having to wear a wig in their shared scenes. However, that’s not entirely true, because, while Woodard herself is not wearing any sort of costume, her character is. “Kind of Skrully,” she amended.
The two acting legends’ on-screen rapport shines through in the scenes between Fury and Priscilla, and without much rehearsal, Woodard revealed. Actors with their kind of talent don’t really need it anyway.
“We didn’t have long talks about the scene, what’s going to happen, what is happening, we just showed up and played. What you see is what we did in those few takes.”
The 69-year-old had nothing but compliments for her co-star. “It’s easy to work with him,” she shared as she gushed about Jackson’s professionalism and the way he’s always “ready.” “It feels like a safe space, so we can actually concentrate in the moment,” Woodard added.
The Secret Invasion finale airs Wednesday, July 26, on Disney Plus.