Samuel L. Jackson recalled some priceless advice he received from Bruce Willis while they were shooting Die Hard With A Vengeance in 1994.
“He told me, ‘Hopefully you’ll be able to find a character that, when you make bad movies and they don’t make any money, you can always go back to this character everybody loves,” Jackson shared in an interview with Vanity Fair celebrating Willis’ 70th birthday . “He said, ‘Arnold’s got Terminator. Sylvester’s got Rocky, Rambo. I’ve got John McClane.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, okay.’ And it didn’t occur to me until I got that Nick Fury role—and I had a nine-picture deal to be Nick Fury—that, Oh, I’m doing what Bruce said. I’ve got this character now.”
Jackson went on to make a dozen Marvel films starring as Nick Fury, beginning with 2008’s Iron Man. He went to appear as Fury in Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron & Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home and most recently, 2023’s The Marvels. The films grossed about $12.8 billion at the box office.
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Jackson also told the Los Angeles Times in a 2022 interview that he was not interested in receiving awards for his work.
“I was never going to let the Oscars be a measure of my success or failure as an actor,” he said. “My yardstick of success is my happiness”
“Am I satisfied with what I’m doing? I’m not doing statue-chasing movies,” he continued. ”‘If you do this movie, you’ll win an Oscar.’ No, thanks. I’d rather be Nick Fury. Or having fun being Mace Windu with a lightsaber in my hand.”
Jackson later again teamed up with Willis in 2000’s Unbreakable.
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