Samuel L Jackson On Kicking Drugs Before His First Role, Social Media, New 'Shaft' Film + More

Breakfast Club in the morning, everyone is a DJ, envy Angela Yee Charlemagne to God We are The Breakfast Club, we have a special guest now you say we have a special guest in the building every day, that's right, today we really have a special yes, like that es,

samuel

l.

jackson

, do you like early

first

of all? I get up so early every day. Okay, actually, if I'm working, I definitely get up because I'm heading out at 5:30 6:00, but if I'm at home, I'm heading out to the golf course, okay, that's part of your routine, get up, go to the golf, maybe it's a good life, never get tired, a good life, I just try to make sure I follow a routine that works for me.

I'm not surprised when it's time to go to work and they want me to get up and get paid to go to work at that time. What is the longest break you have taken between working? Ooh, maybe I guess when it was on Broadway. Yes, yes, but I wasn't going to get up in the morning, I was just going to do the show because even this year you have a lot of movies coming out, but in between

film

ing, did you ever say that you know what I'm going to take? I'm sick, I usually take a month off every year, although I take a month off and I really go on vacation on purpose mm-hmm vacation on purpose, yeah, you gotta tell us your routine, man, because I look at you and I'm like myself that I have something to do.

I'm looking forward to 70 because you look good man thanks, what do you do to stay so useful? I have no idea being stress free, okay you started getting sick, no I did, okay I lost so much weight I almost lost my job and they told me. Well, if you don't gain 15 to 20 pounds, we have to start throwing again, so I went straight to shaking, so what else are you doing? It has to be

more

than just doing Pilates mm-hmm, I play golf, that's all, how do you stay stressed? for free no I'm making money below we say money won't solve all the problems it solves enough um now I don't have to think about it but you didn't come from money although as I was looking at you you were born 20 years before Civil Rights, like in 1960, oh yes, how different the world looked compared to man.

I grew up doing, you know, American apartheid. I have lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I knew where I could go, where I couldn't go. I should do what I shouldn't do, you know all the things you see in life and you do well and then when I hear him say it, you know, make America great again, I go because I remember what they thought, make America be great again. means right, everything means who needs to be, you know, subverted, quiet or rejected, you know, being in charge of how that didn't harden your heart, even though, like growing up in that era and seeing our white people, you used to treat us well. a loving community and and people who make you understand that you know you're a great people in theirs there's a reason why they do this to you hmm you know they're trying to keep you because you're the wealth of what the world is mmm you know you offer something that they have no control, then you know that you listen to those people, you have the right teachers.

My entire school life was black. I didn't have white teachers. I got to Morehouse College, so I had Teachers who taught my mom and her brothers and sisters so they knew what the expectations were at home. They knew that people expected me to go to university, so they pressured me, spoke to me in good terms and told me that I was someone or the In the books that we got that had pages torn out, they told me where I could get the information to for people to educate you and I mean even the kids who knew they weren't going to college and who knew they were going to enter the workforce or the world of work. service guided those people to those places because the teachers cared because they knew those families and it was a community of black people who took care of each other.

You know, I have to remember that when it comes to my daughter because I can leave it. she sees something like when they see us even like a movie like Django that's about slavery she's like why do people do that I never know the answer to why you know what kept you focused because your career really started when you grew up a lot in what that kept you focused all that time on being like this I know this is for me I love theater and I love acting and being here in a rich community of creative people is stimulating, we went into each other's shell, we looked at each other In other jobs we went together We went to auditions and talked, there was no enmity, everyone knew each other very well together and when you are in a rich environment of creative people who share the same goals, everyone was trying to get somewhere or everyone had a different idea about how it was going to happen and that's it. there were enough things going on or enough people moving around, it's like we were doing a play and all of a sudden Denzel says he's gone, okay, so no TV show tonight, he's making movies. okay, boom, gone, another play.

Morgan gets taken out, boom, he's gone, he's being street smart and starts doing all this other stuff. Alfre is gone, Wesley is gone, this is gone, so you know you're in the right place, right, it's just a matter of when. Your time is coming and don't be envious or jealous of it and sometimes I like that I found out that I was on my own path so once I got clean everything changed so there's a very different correlation between me changing my life and being focused and clear. about what I needed to do and my success, so when people say well, you know, everyone goes to rehab and they do this, they do that.

I was out of rehab for a week when I started getting jungle fever, so I didn't really need makeup. I walked onto the set and went to the craft service table and the fruit of Islam was security coming into the table because they thought I was just kind of he's in a movie, but the correlation between my career change and The fact that I was wrong is very clear, so when people talk about relapse and this in others it is that as part of your recovery it is not that you know it is to understand that I never wanted anything as long as I understand that and I get up every days and I realized today is another day that I have to stay clean.

I can still deal with it for 20 years. Still, a boy was your drug of choice. He was right? Yes, yes, that was my drug of choice. Alcohol was my drug of choice. The drug of choice was. drug that was in front of me how old was the kick all those habits when you get tired enough you don't have to worry you know all those other things you just let them go and you melt into them and you let the world be what the world is and you know , look at it with clear eyes, they said your wife was so strong with a nod, you have to get in shape, you have to go get help right now, yes, I mean the day they found me passed out. the kitchen floor the next day was on Riya so did you have that level of self-awareness to know yourself? man I have to change my mind, my lifestyle so I can change my life, it was just something they made you do right, she called my best friend. from high school who was a drug counselor and found me a bed in upstate New York, so I walked right in and didn't come in

kicking

and screaming.

I walked in, I was tired and I listened to what they were saying around me. You know it and you go through it all and you do it and then the job came up, the jungle fever and you know the drug counselor well, you shouldn't do that job, just plant a crackhead, all your triggers will be there, pipes and lighters. If there's no other reason, if I never see you, you know, then that was motivation enough, but understanding how you feel and a clarity of vision and a purpose and what you see in I had to stand in front of my stocking then about eight nine years old. . oldest daughter and say hello, my name is Sam, I'm not really an addict, but she knew that she spent enough time with me, you know, when I was in the middle of my addiction, driving her back and forth to school, that's right, the scooter bus. in the morning and I would drop her off at school and they would leave or I would sit on the playground with her while she was on the slide, pushing the swings, being welcome to the joint, but she knew that when I left I was going to be do something better when they I found myself lying on the floor, she wasn't there, so that was it, when I came back and started walking with her and looking at her with her clear eyes and listening to her voice and her vision of what she wanted to do and dad, Do this with me, do that with me, you know, you know, you were a crack at proper functioning.

I was functional. Most of my friends wonder why she locks you up when they do you wrong. It was like she used. to learn you know I wasn't stealing from the house and I didn't tell the television that you kicked it, then you prospered and that's the yeah, you know, you talked early about, you know, having money and being successful, you still make five for six movies a year yeah what gives you energy will give you that motivation to keep wanting to do it I guess it's like baseball players it always bothers me to hear you know well you know they're tired because they played three games.

This week every day outdoors it was hot and the theater and working on

film

s is like that for me it's like the theater was difficult I had to get up go to rehearsal go do something every night from start to finish mm-hmm three hours of live work in front of people movies I get up I'm going to work a long day it's three pages and yes, a 12 hour day, but I've reduced it to the amount of work I do today. I could have worked an hour and a half um all those 12 hours pretty much the rest of the time I'm in my trailer sleeping watching Judge Judy you know watching the movie reading the book doing nothing so yeah I go to that job I go That one, yes, and it pays much better than the work I do.

I used to have you so yeah I go and I love it. I love the idea of ​​being able to go somewhere, do something else, be someone else, generally somewhere I wouldn't normally have gone, like I'd just finished making a movie in Croatia. So you can explore that when you're not working and being a storyteller and an artist is one of those things, it's a blessing, there are so many performance opportunities in life and I want to take advantage of every one that comes my way. I want to do the right thing, you know, as often as I get the chance to do it, you know, writers get up and write, painters get up and paint, how seriously do you take me in the grossest act of all time because They say seven points? a dubious honor, I mean, it means I've been in a lot of movies that people liked, that were popular, and I like making popcorn movies.

I don't have this whole money thing, you put up broken seats, you make money for the people you get. make

more

movies no, that's what I do and I like to make movies that I want to see. I like movies full of gun violence. I like violent movies. I like our movies. I like action movies. So I'll do them. make a serious movie every once in a while because I want to help the writer director or there's someone in it that I want to work with, but I'm not necessarily looking for, you know, no award winning da da da I'm just looking to go work out a little bit of fun Do you ever get angry at that statistic?

It's not like you look at that number and be like, man, I don't have, no, he's doing well, you know? And sometimes you're lucky enough to get back in, so if the movie doesn't make a lot of money, you keep getting bait, there you go, Hollywood changes from when you started, so where are we now because we always hear about the different weeds and flows and the difficulties for people to get jobs and just the inclusion and everything. Of those conversations that we're very focused on, let's change drastically just because of the number of platforms you have to work on,

first

of all, you know, when I got there, everything I read had Denzel's fish or Denzel's fingerprints.

Forest Whitaker, you know, they either converted or they were thinking about it and they didn't think about it fast enough and I was like, yeah, I'll do it, so I did it. He was always the fourth person on the call sheet that could have been, you know, and that's how I worked I think here I was going to work I was I was doing what I was doing but over the years because of like I said the amount of platforms i Netflix Hulu Apple all that the world of independent film there are so many jobs now and there are so many things and because young writers, young directors populate their shows with the world as they saw it when they grew up, they went to school with black asian hispanics and you know, whoever you meet, they populate their stories with those people because that's who they were. and that's what they are, so there are a lot more opportunities for people who work, consequently, it still comes down to a lot of times the same thing that I used to do because I spent my time going to acting school, there are a lot of people who still goes to Juilliard and these other people, but a lot of YouTube stars get jobs, you know, still people in the music industry just decide the next day say actor, I can act and someone gives me the opportunity to do it, sometimes they come out. be well sometimes not so much, but now there is room for all those who surprised you to workego seeing what it meant because I could be with people who were in movies with me and had a bigger

role

in people, my God, you were amazing and I could stand there and not even know I was right.

It's easier not to be a victim of what people tell you about yourself to feel up in arms or to accept praise so it's to understand that okay, if I do this, this will be more trouble than it's worth, so It is, you know? The moment of instant gratification is not as valid as the relationships I have. They know the history I've created with someone and that's exactly why black men don't know, but there's probably no way exactly. I'm just saying it's the reality here now there's probably nowhere you can go now where people don't recognize you like we do.

I can't imagine that because I feel like everyone across all genders, regardless of age, knows who you are in a lasting way, you know it in a moment. I belong to this group of New South African artists and we went to identify these children whose parents had died of AIDS in this village and we built a daycare center. We went there and they had no idea who we were. Wow, you know? They don't have electricity so no TVs or movie theaters nothing we're just these people who did something you know and it helped them. I was in Tiananmen Square.

I could walk around Beijing mm-hmm practically for free, I really think in Beijing. You would know that all of you depend on what part of the city, but there are specific parts of the city or the country where people don't have movie theaters and they're not allowed to watch, they just leave like ten American movies in the country at the year, so it's very different, you know? There are times when you find it frustrating to go out and everyone likes it, a lot of people know who you are obviously to go out and they know you're going to have to do it.

Deal with it, are you ever like that? I don't even feel like leaving because I really don't feel like it today, no, it's one thing I won't let have. I won't let you know that the fans dictate where I can do it. Not going or what I can and can't do like I was I was this guy long before I was a famous guy so I know how to put my headphones on and do that even if they're not on now they know they mistook you for Laurence. Fishburne when I was at KTLA, I was actually in Atlanta, instead of Atlanta, well, in the studio that morning doing remotes and he caught me when I was, you know, pretty frustrated and I was there for about an hour flipping radio stations and television stations every eight. minutes or whatever, I know, Sam knows better, he just caught me at a bad time.

I just decided, you know, not to let him free. I couldn't put my book down at any time. The fact that I love the fact that when you make your movies. I was watching an interview where you said if they bring you something you don't like you just won't do it you won't try it we won't record it I'm not going to change my life about how How I feel about anything, when did you get to that point? It was always like that, when the first time a director told me, okay, we'll do it your way and we'll try it this way and then I had to understand.

I can't go to the editing room, so when they asked you to do something that's not part of your plan, they'll look at what they asked you to do first because that's what they like, you know? a reason why he's on that side of the camera and I'm on this side, so once I figure out the hierarchy, when you're a young actor, you pretty much can't do that, you go with the program, but then when you realize count, you know when they're shooting the money, I'm not going to do that because that's not what the character would do and I have a plan to go from here to here to here to here and you see something they just put it there, you just watch movies and damn that guy who was doing this there and now he feels like that, that's because the director had something in his head that he wanted them to do, so I usually go with Everybody's got me for a reason, let me do what I did, se They were removing a tattoo, right?

I saw on their Instagram that they said tattoo removal, yeah that's a fake tattoo, okay I was like, what tattoo did you have that they were removing? man's bodyguard I have all these crows, okay, they represent people I've killed and there's a big tree on the back of my head with crows flying around, even though she takes it off every day, she puts it on every day while he gives it to you take away from you. Talk about walking down the street. I know the kids have to bother you about the

role

in Nick Fury. No, you know, usually their parents don't make their kids Nick Fury.

You got that role because they were already modeling the character after you in the comments yeah ultimately because the writer said Mark Miller yeah Mark Miller said he was his favorite actor so he did the guy from Kingsman too, did you? Have you ever wanted to adapt to him as if he were using your image? Well, it was the first book I saw in the first comic and I called my agent and asked him about it and they called Mar like, oh yeah, we plan to do these movies and we hope Sam is a part of it and that's when they knew that between. and I got that 9 movie contract.

Wow, everyone excited. Have you ever hated a character you had to play because there are characters you had to play and relate to? That person is like in Django, you know, but people definitely Steven had fans of him, yeah, man. Fuss, no, a lot of people like Steve just because Steven apologizes for being evil. Stephen is who Stephen is and I had a great time, but he always used that as a meme on

social

media

now and everyone who calls someone a sellout, that means, Carrie appears. To me, so many people so angry, listen, I know and that's the point.

I did things in his movie that aren't in the movie. There really would be one of these days Quinton to post it. Oh my God, I can't imagine it. I don't want people to kill you, that's another case where I watched movies like I couldn't even imagine what could have been done that was worse than what we saw. Would you play that role in this political climate? You know you have it all. these woke people, yes people should be able to say whatever they need to portray you, you did very well, well thank you, I thought, damn I can't, I really like it, but I really don't like it today, now say who It's Jack.

I have to go in a second guys, did you still enjoy it as soon as you saw me? They predicted someone would fill the position right now. What predictors do you have now? Do I have any predictions for next year 2020, not really. I have found the right person. However, I'm still trying to figure out who it is with the resistance. Don't know. I'm looking for someone with a little more political clout who's more like Stacey Abrams mm-hmm so no one stands out, you know? and they have all the Avengers on the Democrat side and none, not yet, yeah, I mean, it's not like I'm not going to vote for whoever is on their side, yeah, I just hope there's a credible person who can set the young people on fire . people and encourage them to go out and be part of the political process again and understand that you know they have to claim it even if you don't like the people who are doing it now you have to do something to claim it talk to the people who you think are smart enough or people who are angry enough that they will go in there and work to make this a better place because I won't be here much longer.

I understand it and I knew it, but I don't want to leave a place that my daughter and even you had to struggle with because you don't care about your well-being or the planet. Do you think they won't just not care about the people they care about? I don't care where the government can actually do something for black and brown people, they can Jamie, yeah, universal healthcare is a thing, yeah, you know, if they finally get it and allow people to get well and be healthy and Social Security. You know, people worked their whole lives, you know, man, give them the money they put there, that's what I've even screamed about the same thing for years, yeah, we've done it and because yeah, the same people that want to regulate the women's bodies, you know, because I don't even think less about knowing all women's bodies because they don't care if you still have a bush, which is why I don't like it when you say you won't be here because you're seventy, but it's all about Joe.

Biden 74 I should vote for him, he may not be here, well you should vote for him if there is no other option because there is no other option, but you are right, you want someone who is vibrant, he will be, I mean we probably all would . I would have been happy if Barack could have had another turn, you absolutely know, and this fool is talking, well, I want to stay well, we appreciate you joining us. I know you have to go to the United States. Are you going to Rob Prince? I walked into this one. In this you ask those who were asking me about your coming to the United States.

I was like now I have my dolls oh no, maybe you just got out of jail and you're going to steal them again. He could be reformed as if he were reformed and he. He actually had a business now and you know, he had his life, yeah.