Los Angeles reporter Sam Rubin learned that lesson the hard way during a recent interview with Jackson, who was promoting his role in the upcoming "RoboCop" reboot. Rubin began the interview by asking Jackson about his Super Bowl commercial, realizing too late that he was thinking of Fishburne's "Matrix"-inspired ad. Rubin tried to correct himself, but Jackson immediately latched on, and took Rubin to task for his mistake.
"I am not Laurence Fishburne!" he cried. "We don't all look alike! We may be all black and famous, but we all don't look alike. You're busted."
Things got even more painful from there, as Rubin apologized and tried to shift things back to "RoboCop," only to receive more ribbing from Jackson in return.
"There's more than one black guy doing a commercial," Jackson lectured Rubin, adding that Morgan Freeman, like Jackson, does credit card commercials, but in those ads, "you only hear [Freeman's] voice, though, so you probably won't confuse him with Laurence Fishburne."
Though Jackson's demeanor came off as more playful than pissed off, we can't blame the actor for being offended. After all, as Jackson pointed out, Rubin is KTLA's resident entertainment reporter, and really should know better. Rubin later acknowledged as much in an on-air apology.
"First and foremost, I do know who Samuel L. Jackson is," Rubin said. "I pride myself on the fact that, unlike a lot of people who do this kind of work, more often than not, I really do know what I'm talking about but I didn't 30 minutes ago. And I'm really embarrassed about it, and I very much apologize to Samuel L. Jackson and anyone else who was offended by what was a very amateur mistake."
Watch the Rubin's mistake and subsequent apology below.[via TheWrap]