Samuel L. Jackson gets to have it both ways playing a 90-something with dementia on Apple TV+'s The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

The New York Times

"Casting Samuel L. Jackson as a man in his 90s with dementia is a bold choice," says Mike Hale of the miniseries based on the novel of Walter Mosley's novel of the same name that Jackson has been working to bring to the screen since 2010. "Is there any actor more defined by his command, his cool, his razor-sharpness? It’s like telling Bill Murray not to be funny. Funny thing is, the person who cast Jackson as the title character in The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey .... was Samuel L. Jackson," says Hale, adding: "Jackson has said he was attracted to the story because of the prevalence of Alzheimer’s in his own family. But you can see another, more strategic reason he might cotton to Mosley’s touching blend of parable, mystery and period melodrama. Through a slightly fantastical plot device, Ptolemy Grey slides back and forth between crotchety dementia and full, get-your-swagger-on capability. So Jackson gets to have it both ways, and the show’s tension springs from our continuing assessment of Ptolemy’s mental state. We’re constantly rooting for him to be as much like Samuel L. Jackson as possible."

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• The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is as disoriented as its titular character: "What could have been an impactful and emotional drama, like its source material, is derailed by its own identity crisis when brought to the small screen," says Terry Terrones, adding: "Walter Mosley’s well-received 2010 novel has been lauded for it’s thought-provoking examination of aging, loss, family and identity. The TV version of The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey will generate no such response. Due to its meandering nature and stretched out plot, the novel would have been better served as a well-structured film than a rambling TV series. Despite first rate performances from its stars, this is a show you’re likely to soon forget."
• While Ptolemy has flaws in its execution, it’s redeemed by earth-shaking performances: "The pilot is an emotionally draining watch because of how vividly it renders Ptolemy’s life of addled squalor," says Joshua Alston. "Director Ramin Bahrani uses shopworn techniques to illustrate what it’s like to be Ptolemy, including gauzy lenses to obscure memories and a chest-mounted camera rig to convey disorientation. But with Jackson’s performance, among the best of his storied career, there’s little need for visual innovation. Jackson is truly heartbreaking as end-stage Ptolemy, who spends his days eating beans from a can and shadowboxing with ghosts from the indelible parts of his past."
• Where Ptolemy shines is through its at times brutal, at times delicate realism: "Through Ptolemy’s widened unseeing eyes, you can understand the pure terror his life must be every day," says Kayla Cobb. "If you’ve ever been someone diagnosed with dementia, Jackson nails their mannerisms while also infusing his performance with a degree of empathy many of these patients rarely experience. That realism is also always present with Robyn. Fishback’s dynamic young woman doesn’t have many big speeches about how she loves and respects Ptolemy as a person, and she doesn’t need them. Her devotion is continuously shown through little moments — scrubbing Ptolemy’s filthy bathroom, leading him to see Reggie’s body when no one will tell him it’s a funeral, consulting him as she cleans his place. There’s a true beauty in the myriad of ways Robyn shows her devotion to this man."
• Jackson's star power can't bring Ptolemy to life: "The concept creates a showy role for Jackson -- alternately exhibiting rage and confusion as he struggles against the vagaries of his own mind, while playing the character at different ages -- and the latest opportunity to admire Fishback, who continues to build a resume of knockout supporting performances that has included HBO's The Deuce and Judas and the Black Messiah," says Brian Lowry. "Still, the oscillation between past and present already feels like an overused device, and the temporary nature of Ptolemy's treatments -- backsliding between them -- undercuts the story's momentum before it can reach a not-wholly-satisfying conclusion."
• For all its dark elements, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is, more than anything, sweet: "For all its many characters, and a cast able to bring even small parts to life in short order, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is at its heart a two-person play, and factoring out all the curlicues of the plot, we are left with something still worth the watching, whatever you might not quite credit in the story, or even if you credit it all, Jackson and Fishback create characters whose side you’re on, with the superimposed pleasure of watching them at work. Jackson manages to make Ptolemy feel whole, continuous, in his abrupt shifts of body and mind, whether being taken care of or caretaking — caretaking being the story’s overarching theme," says Robert Lloyd. "(I’m not sure I buy him as a person in his 90s but, then again, I don’t buy Jackson himself as 73, and he is.) One senses too that the actor, like the character, is enjoying himself."
• Jackson props up an otherwise meandering drama: "It’s hard to dislike The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, if only because of its earnest message and the saccharine nature of its screenplay about an aging, lonely man with dementia, and the teenage girl who comes to his rescue," says Tambay Obenson. "It’s a tenderly written coming-of-age story, an odyssey, and a romance all in one. Performances by Samuel L. Jackson and Dominique Fishback are the saving grace for a series that wears its heart on its sleeve and is emotionally manipulative enough that one can’t help but be sympathetic to it. Based on the Walter Mosley novel of the same name, viewers may find it easier to simply acquiesce to its bigheartedness than push back against its predictability and at times plodding progression."
• The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey remains curiously limited in what it chooses to depict: "We really only see two periods of Ptolemy’s past: his impoverished childhood in Mississippi, and the time he was in a tumultuous relationship with his wife, Sensia (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams), in the mid-‘70s," says Steven Scaife. "Sometimes the elderly Ptolemy will move through these memories in the place of an age-appropriate version, furthering the idea that these moments are vivid and immersive in his head. But it also creates a hierarchy of importance, ensuring that all the other memories relegated to mere monologues feel secondary and lack the same tangible, lived-in quality. Admittedly, the series is meant to be about taking decisive action rather than dwelling on the pain and regret of the past. But in focusing so little on those aspects of Ptolemy’s life, it offers up a character that feels as incomplete as the actions he undertakes."
• Ptolemy Grey doesn't maintain its strong start: "As the story progresses, the treasure hunt and the murder mystery take up more and more time and attention, with diminishing payoffs," says Angie Han. "A series that started out a heartbreaker ends in a shrug. Last Days never drops to the level of boring — if nothing else, it’s always a pleasure to slip into the warm glow of Ptolemy and Robin’s friendship, or sit back and admire Jackson’s nuanced performance."
• Jackson delivers a career-best performance: "He holds your attention as firmly as he ever did as the biblically monologuing Jules in Pulp Fiction, or as Nick Fury in the MCU or – of course – as FBI agent Neville Flynn trying to keep track of all those snakes on that plane in 2006’s enduring masterpiece Snakes on a Plane," says Lucy Mangan. "In his moments of lucidity Ptolemy is frightened of the ever changing world. In the rest he is distraught, burdened by unknown horrors and haunted by people and fragmented scenes from his childhood in the Jim Crow south. It is a rounded and unsparing portrait of dementia and to see the 73-year-old actor offer up such a vulnerable performance after a career largely built on dazzling us with the opposite adds a poignancy all of its own."
• The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey casts an unflinching eye on the marginalization of Black America: "Jackson imbues his portrayal of Grey with terrifying clarity," says Nandini Balial. "I have become so familiar with his supremely self-possessed roles that I didn’t realize the confidence inherent in his performances registers at an even more transcendent plane when he plays a helpless dying man. Every cry of despair, every struggle to remember names and faces, every motion—from the slightest tremor of Grey’s hands to his torso wavering—are just part of his life’s daily tragedies. There is no end to the list of indignities the elderly are made to suffer, but add to that senility, living alone, and racism."
• Dominique Fishback and more Ptolemy Grey discuss what it's like working with Samuel L. Jackson: "He’s going to be himself no matter what," says Fishback Sometimes that’s really hard to do as an artist, especially as a young Black woman, because you want to go into a space and be yourself but you’re afraid you might be misunderstood. He’s going to be who he is whether he’s on set, on a red carpet, or on social media. Watching him gave me the freedom to say, 'I will be myself, too.'"
• Samuel L. Jackson on what drew him to Ptolemy Grey: "I’ve always like Ptolemy in terms of who he was and what his life was," he says. "His life situation was something I was very familiar with because a lot of people in my family had Alzheimer’s and dementia. So I was kind of surrounded by it and thought it would be great to pay homage to them in a way. You have people that have been very special and you’ve watched them and you’ve seen the light go out of their eyes at a certain point. But you also know that they had rich and fruitful lives that need to be celebrated and talked about with other people. So it’s an opportunity to create a character and say this is who he was, this is who he is now but this is what he was. This is what made Ptolemy the man that he is."
• The project was personal for both Samuel L. Jackson and author Walter Mosley since each has a loved one that suffers from dementia: "He’s all of us everywhere," says Moseley of Ptolemy Grey. "This is a destination that either we reach ourselves in our own experience, or with people that we know and love and live with, as far as aging, dementia and death. These things impact everybody’s lives. It’s a great thing to have Sam taking it on and bringing it to a neighborhood that other people don’t seem to think about very much." Jackson adds: "As based in reality as we want it to be, he’s actually at the center of a fable. He’s this mythical character that Walter created who has a real-life problem at the beginning, but Walter allows us to circle back and see a life well lived. It’s a fairy tale. In reality, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s or dementia, but we get one, however momentarily, that allows him to be clear about everything that’s happened in his life, in a flash."
• Jackson says there's no stigma attached to acting on TV anymore: “If I read it and it’s a TV project, there’s no stigma anymore," he says. “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.” He adds: “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. 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.”
• Jackson on transforming into different versions of Ptolemy Gray: “To create Ptolemy’s look was great,” he says with a smile. “I have these people who are around me, and we talk about how far we want to go, and how much fun we’re going to have when we’re doing it. We also created his throwback look when he was a player and a young guy. It’s a joy to have people who aren’t afraid to take risks, and I’m always willing to not look like myself.”
• Was there anything that Jackson used from your interactions with family members who have dementia to inform his performance?: "You can’t help but remember certain aspects of their physicality and things that informed you about the kind of mood they were in that day or how that affected them when you spoke to them in a certain way," he says. "So, being able to understand and being able to mimic those particular things, hopefully, audiences watching it who have family members or loved ones that are suffering from dementia, can look at that and see the reality of it and not be triggered by it. Of course there’s the fantasy part of the story with the cure that temporarily allows him to be clear and go back in his mind, which informs the story in other ways so  that they won’t have to sit there and be depressed watching a person deteriorate, but instead get to watch a person live a full life prior to getting to that particular point."