Samuel L. Jackson Channels Russell Simmons and More Insider Scoop — billboard.com

Russell Simmons Does Samuel L. Jackson Doing Russell Simmons Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons has been hearing for weeks that Samuel L. Jackson channeled him to portray the lisping, baseball hat-and-Adidas-wearing villain Valentine in Kingsman: The Secret Service. And after seeing the movie, he agrees there's a resemblance. "My driver and everybody who saw it with me were laughing. They said, 'That's you, Russ!' " he tells Overheard, but says the lisp that Jackson affects in the movie is much heavier than his own. "I used to speak that way but haven't for years now, " explains Simmons, although he adds that seeing the movie prompted him to "speak with a heavier lisp than usual" while presenting the NAACP Image Award to Clive Davis. "I was channeling Sam Jackson channeling me," says Simmons. --Frank DiGiacomo

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