Samuel L. Jackson is one of the most famous Hollywood stars in the world today. But that wasn’t always the case. Today he explains what advice his co-star Bruce Willis gave him when he was slowly seen in Stirb in 1994. A advice that he only understood much later, as he says.
What Council gave him Bruce Willis: Samuel L. Jackson has now revealed Vanity Fair what advice he got from Bruce Willis, who celebrated his 70th birthday on March 19, 2025:
He said to me: Hopefully you will find a role you can return if you have made bad films that have not brought you any money. And then you can always return to this figure that everyone loves.
He said: Arnold has the terminator, Sylvester has Rocky and Rambo. And I have John McClaine.
Bruce Willis had his big breakthrough with the character John McClaine. 7 action stars rejected the leading role at the time:
Die slow – German trailer for the action film with Bruce Willis
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Jackson only understood much later what Bruce Willis meant by the council
What did this advice mean for Samuel L. Jackson: Jackson says the Vanity Fair today: At that time he didn’t think much and just said “Oh, okay”.
But what Bruce Willis meant by that, Samuel L. Jackson only understood when he got the role of Nick Fury in Marvel Cinematic Universe and completed a deal with 9 films.
Then he realized: “Oh, I’m doing what Bruce told me now. I have this figure now.”
Did Samuel L. Jackson make bad films? It is a matter of taste whether a film is bad or not. But Samuel L. Jackson had some films in the 90s and later, who at least received no strong reviews on IMDB.
In any case, Samuel L. Jackson is not exactly known for being particularly picky in the selection of his role. In the comedy Ted there is a legendary gag that alludes to:
Immediately in front of Pulp Fiction (8.9 IMDB) and Die Slow – now even more so (7.6 IMDB), Jackson played in “Julius Caesar Superstar”, who has an extraordinarily bad rating with 3.2 points on IMDB. Later films such as “XXX 2-The Next Level” (4.5 IMDB) or The Spirit (4.7 IMDB) were not great success in the eyes of the IMDB users.
The Spirit, of course, has a lot that speaks for him: In a forgotten film that is new to Netflix, you can see 2 Marvel stars in Nazi uniforms that you would never count on with