Latest news with #DieHardWithAVengeance
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Samuel L. Jackson Remembers The Cheeky Rule He Learned About 'The A-- You Have To Kiss' While Working On Die Hard 3, And It's A Good Note For Anyone
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. In Hollywood, some actors have reputations for being great to work with, and others… do not. Samuel L. Jackson, according to most accounts, is one of the good ones. He says he really tries to be nice to everybody on the movie set, too, because doing so is easy, and because he knows there's a possibility he'll get paid back for it later. In a video posted to Instagram by Masterclass, Jackson relays a sign that he saw while working on Die Hard With A Vengeance. The film was one of the actor's biggest roles at the time, a co-lead alongside Bruce Willis, and he says there was a poster on the wall in the office that he took to heart. He explained… I remember there was a sign on the wall in the Die Hard office that I never forgot that said 'Be careful of the toes you step on today, for they could be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow.' So I've been nice to PAs to everybody and everything else. And some of those PAs became producers and gave me jobs. It's an idea that we've certainly all heard before, but I've never heard it put quite this way. While there's a bit of a self-serving nature to it all, it doesn't mean you can't be genuinely nice to other people. It's a lesson we can all learn that being nice is often just easier, it never hurts, and it might help. There have been those times when actors and crew haven't always gotten along. Christian Bale once famously berated somebody on the set of Terminator: Salvation. Hugh Grant has admitted to losing his temper in a similar fashion. Tom Cruise famously laid into some of the crew of Mission: Impossible for violating pandemic protocols. While these may have all been outliers for the actors, the fact that we know about them says something, and can certainly change the perception of a performer. Having a reputation as an actor who's great to work with is always ideal. Samuel L. Jackson says following this simple rule has absolutely come back to him as he's gotten jobs from producers that liked him because he was nice to them when they were much lower on the org chart. The beloved Die Hard sequel was a big role for the actor, but Samuel L. Jackson's best roles would all come later. He likely took this lesson to heart at just the right time. In the end, Jackson simply sees it as a variation on the Golden Rule. Try to make sure everybody has a good day, because you want to have a good day. He said… Everybody's there doing the same job. So you show up, and you try and make the day as pleasant as you want the day to be for you. Movie-making is an incredibly collaborative business. There are all kinds of people doing all sorts of jobs on set. All of them are necessary, and they're all working toward the same goal. There's no reason not to just be nice to the people you're working with. Hopefully, we can all learn this lesson from Samuel L. Jackson.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bruce Willis told Samuel L. Jackson to get cast as someone 'everybody loves' for a stable career. He later got the role of Nick Fury.
Samuel L. Jackson told Vanity Fair that Bruce Willis advised him in 1994 to get a lead blockbuster role. He said Willis thought actors needed a beloved character to fall back on to have a stable career. Jackson later followed his advice, getting a role as Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Samuel L. Jackson said Bruce Willis once advised him to get cast as a beloved character in a franchise to have a stable career. In an interview with Vanity Fair for a feature celebrating Willis' 70th birthday, Jackson recalled a career conversation they had while 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 recalled. Willis then mentioned his role as John McClane in the "Die Hard" series, according to Jackson, as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger's role in the "Terminator" movies and Sylvester Stallone's lead role in "Rocky" and "Rambo" as examples of the type of franchise characters Jackson should pursue. Jackson eventually found that character when he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the post-credit scene of 2008's "Iron Man." Jackson said: "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 has appeared in 12 Marvel movies as Fury, the spy who helped form the Avengers and often advises the main superheroes. He's also reprised the role in two TV series and three games. Jackson got his first lead Marvel role in the 2023 Disney+ series "Secret Invasion," although fans and critics panned the show. It's not been reported how much Jackson has earned from his Marvel career, but considering it's a billion-dollar franchise, it will not be a small amount. Jackson has also had box-office success elsewhere. He's starred in numerous other hit franchises, including the "Star Wars" prequel movies, which grossed $2.5 billion in total, according to Box Office Mojo. In 2017, Box Office Mojo reported that Jackson had the biggest total box office across all his films of any actor, with a gross of $5.8 billion in the US and $13.4 billion worldwide. Starring in franchises is not the only route to a stable career in Hollywood. Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Meryl Streep are among the actors who generally avoid starring in sequels and franchises but have had long and well-paid careers without them. Read the original article on Business Insider
