WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.299 Um, so, if I asked you to name, like, the loudest, 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:06.580 most confident, maybe even the most intimidating 00:00:06.580 --> 00:00:09.019 voice in Hollywood history, you would probably 00:00:09.019 --> 00:00:11.119 have a pretty quick answer. Yeah, I mean, you 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:13.039 would almost certainly say Samuel L. Jackson. 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:16.699 Right. Exactly. But, uh, what if I told you that 00:00:16.699 --> 00:00:21.260 the man behind that booming $27 billion cinematic 00:00:21.260 --> 00:00:24.620 voice actually spent his childhood physically 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:28.170 unable to speak? It's... It's the ultimate paradox, 00:00:28.230 --> 00:00:30.410 really, because when you look at his Wikipedia 00:00:30.410 --> 00:00:33.179 biography, you don't see this traditional you 00:00:33.179 --> 00:00:36.100 know, carefully curated Hollywood timeline. Oh, 00:00:36.100 --> 00:00:38.340 not at all. Right, you see this absolute master 00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:41.060 class in career judo. I mean, he has consistently 00:00:41.060 --> 00:00:43.939 taken these massive obstacles like severe stutter, 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:47.600 systemic racism, addiction, even corporate copyright 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:50.100 infringement, and he just uses the sheer weight 00:00:50.100 --> 00:00:52.200 of those obstacles to flip the entire system 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:54.759 in his favor. Which is wild, and welcome to the 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:57.000 deep dive, by the way. Today, we're taking you 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.240 along for a ride into the incredibly unorthodox 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:01.340 life of Samuel L. Jackson. Yeah, it is quite 00:01:01.340 --> 00:01:05.019 the ride. is. Our mission here is to figure out 00:01:05.019 --> 00:01:08.659 exactly how a kid from the segregated South managed 00:01:08.659 --> 00:01:11.120 to reverse engineer the power dynamics of the 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:13.260 entertainment industry. Like how does he become 00:01:13.260 --> 00:01:15.859 the highest grossing lead actor of all time? 00:01:16.140 --> 00:01:18.140 Right and it starts way before the movies. Exactly. 00:01:18.359 --> 00:01:20.920 Okay let's unpack this because to really understand 00:01:20.920 --> 00:01:23.959 the legend we have to look at the the glitch 00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:27.040 in his early neurology. Yeah so he was born in 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:29.799 Washington DC but he was actually raised in Chattanooga 00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:33.069 Tennessee and his His early life was really marked 00:01:33.069 --> 00:01:36.549 by absence. His father struggled with alcoholism 00:01:36.549 --> 00:01:39.709 and lived in Kansas City, and Jackson only met 00:01:39.709 --> 00:01:43.510 him twice his entire life. But the defining hurdle 00:01:43.510 --> 00:01:45.930 of his childhood was a debilitating stutter. 00:01:46.230 --> 00:01:47.890 Yeah, and it wasn't just a minor stutter. It 00:01:47.890 --> 00:01:50.310 was so severe that he practically stopped speaking 00:01:50.310 --> 00:01:52.750 altogether for almost a year. Right. And he didn't 00:01:52.750 --> 00:01:55.310 cure it by, you know, sitting in some speech 00:01:55.310 --> 00:01:57.689 therapy clinic doing standard vocal exercises. 00:01:57.790 --> 00:02:00.140 He developed a workaround. He realized that the 00:02:00.140 --> 00:02:02.219 stutter was actually tied to his own identity. 00:02:02.620 --> 00:02:05.340 So if he pretended to be other people -like, 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:08.000 people who didn't stutter, he could speak fluently. 00:02:08.340 --> 00:02:10.780 Which is fascinating. He was literally forced 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:13.639 to embody other characters just to communicate 00:02:13.639 --> 00:02:17.000 his basic needs to the world. Right, which completely 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:19.379 reframes his entire profession. Absolutely. He 00:02:19.379 --> 00:02:21.259 was learning the fundamental mechanics of acting, 00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:24.560 but not for applause or for a school play. It 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:27.479 was for basic survival. It was a functional necessity. 00:02:27.699 --> 00:02:29.840 It's like he discovered a cheat code for his 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:31.819 own neurology. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. 00:02:32.009 --> 00:02:34.229 And he coupled that with another really famous 00:02:34.229 --> 00:02:37.590 workaround. He found a specific word that helped 00:02:37.590 --> 00:02:40.050 him push through those neurological speech blocks, 00:02:40.550 --> 00:02:43.090 a word he actually still uses today. Oh yes, 00:02:43.750 --> 00:02:45.870 a very specific profanity. Yeah, the one that 00:02:45.870 --> 00:02:48.889 starts with an M. He essentially used a curse 00:02:48.889 --> 00:02:52.530 word as a literal software patch to bypass a 00:02:52.530 --> 00:02:54.530 glitch in his speech. And he still uses it to 00:02:54.530 --> 00:02:57.330 this day to reset his speech patterns, but... 00:02:57.180 --> 00:02:59.599 You know, the drive to assert his voice definitely 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:01.879 didn't stop it overcoming his stutter. No, it 00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:04.379 got much bigger. Right. When he went to Morehouse 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:08.039 College in Atlanta in the late 1960s, the entire 00:03:08.039 --> 00:03:11.740 country was finding his voice. And he initially 00:03:11.740 --> 00:03:14.319 went there to study marine biology, of all things. 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:16.840 Wait, really? Marine biology? Yeah. And then 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:18.900 he switched to architecture and eventually landed 00:03:18.900 --> 00:03:23.039 on drama. But, I mean, you can't be a black student 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:25.909 in Atlanta. in the late 60s without being pulled 00:03:25.909 --> 00:03:27.590 into the gravity of the civil rights movement. 00:03:27.930 --> 00:03:30.030 Especially when Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated 00:03:30.030 --> 00:03:33.110 in 1968. Jackson doesn't just, you know, watch 00:03:33.110 --> 00:03:35.090 this happen on the evening news. Right. He is 00:03:35.090 --> 00:03:37.490 right there. Yeah. He literally attends King's 00:03:37.490 --> 00:03:42.050 funeral in Atlanta as an usher. And then he immediately 00:03:42.050 --> 00:03:45.469 gets on a plane to Memphis, Tennessee, to march 00:03:45.469 --> 00:03:47.729 in the equal rights protests that King had been 00:03:47.729 --> 00:03:50.750 leading. He was angry. I mean, he felt that peaceful 00:03:50.750 --> 00:03:52.889 coexistence just wasn't going to bring about 00:03:52.889 --> 00:03:54.990 the systemic change that was necessary at that 00:03:54.990 --> 00:03:57.689 time. Yeah. And that anger culminated in this 00:03:57.689 --> 00:04:01.669 massive high stakes escalation in 1969. Jackson 00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:03.830 and a group of several other students took direct 00:04:03.830 --> 00:04:05.569 action at Morehouse College. And when you say 00:04:05.569 --> 00:04:07.830 direct action, we aren't talking about like a 00:04:07.830 --> 00:04:10.599 sit in on the campus squad with some No, no, 00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:12.800 they wanted curriculum reform and more black 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:14.719 representation on the school's board of trustees 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:16.860 So they physically locked the doors and held 00:04:16.860 --> 00:04:19.160 the members of the board hostage. They literally 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:22.819 chained the doors. Yeah chain them shut and To 00:04:22.819 --> 00:04:25.300 fully understand the historical weight of this 00:04:25.300 --> 00:04:27.639 moment You have to realize that one of the board 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:30.100 members they locked in that building was Martin 00:04:30.100 --> 00:04:33.550 Luther King senior Wow That is an unbelievable 00:04:33.550 --> 00:04:35.970 intersection of history, just sitting in that 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:38.449 room. It really is. But there is a massive reality 00:04:38.449 --> 00:04:40.529 check that comes with bowling a stunt like that. 00:04:40.610 --> 00:04:42.350 I mean, you don't just hold a board of trustees 00:04:42.350 --> 00:04:45.310 hostage and then casually go back to your morning 00:04:45.310 --> 00:04:47.670 classes the next day. Oh, absolutely not. So 00:04:47.670 --> 00:04:49.750 while the college did eventually concede to some 00:04:49.750 --> 00:04:52.769 of their demands and change its policy, the legal 00:04:52.769 --> 00:04:56.579 system stepped in. Right. Jackson was charged 00:04:56.579 --> 00:04:59.740 with and convicted of unlawful confinement. That 00:04:59.740 --> 00:05:02.779 is a second degree felony. A felony. And Morehouse 00:05:02.779 --> 00:05:05.670 suspended him for two years, which... Two years 00:05:05.670 --> 00:05:08.329 in the late 1960s is an eternity. Oh, yeah. The 00:05:08.329 --> 00:05:10.889 whole world was shifting. Exactly. And during 00:05:10.889 --> 00:05:14.069 that suspension, his radicalization only deepens. 00:05:14.310 --> 00:05:17.009 He starts meeting with really prominent black 00:05:17.009 --> 00:05:20.009 power leaders, guys like Stokely Carmichael and 00:05:20.009 --> 00:05:22.689 H. Rapp Brown. He is fully immersing himself 00:05:22.689 --> 00:05:24.629 in the militant wing of the movement at this 00:05:24.629 --> 00:05:28.569 point. But then a very stark warning completely 00:05:28.569 --> 00:05:31.110 derails everything. Right. His mother received 00:05:31.110 --> 00:05:34.430 a visit from the FBI. and they gave her this 00:05:34.430 --> 00:05:37.209 chillingly specific warning. They said if her 00:05:37.209 --> 00:05:39.730 son stayed involved with these militant groups, 00:05:39.850 --> 00:05:42.769 he would be dead within a year. Wow, that is 00:05:42.769 --> 00:05:45.889 terrifying. It is. So she didn't hesitate. She 00:05:45.889 --> 00:05:48.189 packed his bags and put him on a plane to Los 00:05:48.189 --> 00:05:50.870 Angeles just to get him out of the blast radius. 00:05:51.250 --> 00:05:53.290 Which creates a really fascinating psychological 00:05:53.290 --> 00:05:56.139 dilemma for him, right? How so? Well... He had 00:05:56.139 --> 00:05:58.040 finally found his voice. He had a movement to 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:00.639 channel his incredible rebellious fire into. 00:06:01.139 --> 00:06:04.939 And suddenly he is just exiled from his own revolution. 00:06:05.319 --> 00:06:07.480 That energy has to go somewhere. Yeah, that's 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:10.079 a great point. And when a fire that intense doesn't 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:12.259 have an external target, it turns inward. It 00:06:12.259 --> 00:06:14.800 becomes destructive. Exactly. That displacement 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:16.660 ultimately leads him to the New York theater 00:06:16.660 --> 00:06:20.319 scene by about 1976. He's acting, he's touring, 00:06:20.699 --> 00:06:23.139 but he is just completely untethered. The New 00:06:23.139 --> 00:06:25.439 York years sound absolutely grueling. I mean, 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:27.759 to survive between stage plays and auditions, 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:29.899 he's working as an overnight security guard at 00:06:29.899 --> 00:06:32.439 the Manhattan Plaza apartment complex. Right. 00:06:32.699 --> 00:06:34.879 And this is where that inward burning fire becomes 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:37.819 deeply destructive. He develops severe substance 00:06:37.819 --> 00:06:40.160 abuse issues. And it escalated quickly, didn't 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:42.800 it? It did. It started with alcohol, escalated 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:45.420 to heroin. which he actually overdosed on multiple 00:06:45.420 --> 00:06:48.600 times, and eventually transitioned into a severe 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:51.540 cocaine addiction. Gosh. And this wasn't just, 00:06:51.540 --> 00:06:54.079 you know, a functional habit. It actively derailed 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:57.600 his career. He premiered two massive August Wilson 00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:00.459 plays at the Yale Repertory Theater. Oh, the 00:07:00.459 --> 00:07:02.759 piano lesson and two trains running right. Exactly. 00:07:03.139 --> 00:07:05.160 But because of his addiction, he couldn't take 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:07.230 them to Broadway. other actors ended up taking 00:07:07.230 --> 00:07:10.050 his roles. He was watching his own potential 00:07:10.050 --> 00:07:13.149 just dissolve. It's that tragic Hollywood cliche 00:07:13.149 --> 00:07:15.670 we've seen like a hundred times. Yeah. But thankfully 00:07:15.670 --> 00:07:18.550 his family stages an intervention. He goes into 00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:21.709 a New York rehab clinic to dry out and the timing 00:07:21.709 --> 00:07:23.769 of his exit from that clinic is just it's nothing 00:07:23.769 --> 00:07:26.430 short of cinematic. What's fascinating here is 00:07:26.430 --> 00:07:29.230 the sheer audacity of his very first move out 00:07:29.230 --> 00:07:32.040 of rehab. About a week or so after his discharge 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:35.980 in 1991, he is cast in Spike Lee's film Jungle 00:07:35.980 --> 00:07:38.620 Fever. And his character. A crap cocaine addict. 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:42.100 See, I have to push back on the romanticized 00:07:42.100 --> 00:07:44.579 Hollywood comeback narrative that usually surrounds 00:07:44.579 --> 00:07:46.560 this story. For sure. Because people act like 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:49.399 it was this triumphant return to form. But this 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:52.060 wasn't that. This was a man stepping out of a 00:07:52.060 --> 00:07:54.300 clinic where he was literally fighting for his 00:07:54.300 --> 00:07:57.420 actual life and walking directly onto a movie 00:07:57.420 --> 00:08:01.319 set to play his own worst demon. That is a tightrope 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:03.920 walk over an active volcano. It really is. It 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:06.639 is the ultimate artistic alchemy. He took his 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:09.220 absolute darkest, most destructive personal failure, 00:08:09.699 --> 00:08:11.860 stripped away all that theatrical polish, and 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:15.160 just transmuted it into raw, lived authenticity. 00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:17.360 He actually called the experience cathartic, 00:08:17.459 --> 00:08:19.779 which is wild to me. Yeah, and the result was 00:08:19.779 --> 00:08:22.500 so... undeniably powerful that it broke the rules 00:08:22.500 --> 00:08:24.819 of global cinema. Literally broke the rules. 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:28.100 Because the jury at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:30.639 literally invented a special supporting actor 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:32.620 award just to give it to him. Right. They had 00:08:32.620 --> 00:08:35.200 to create an entirely new category to acknowledge 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:37.659 what he did on that screen. Because it was that 00:08:37.659 --> 00:08:40.360 undeniable. Yeah. And that moment is the pivot. 00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:43.799 He proved that his true value wasn't in playing 00:08:43.799 --> 00:08:46.840 by the traditional rules of acting. It was in 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:49.259 bringing his unvarnished reality into the fiction. 00:08:49.370 --> 00:08:51.970 Yeah. And having survived his own self -distraction, 00:08:52.370 --> 00:08:55.370 he suddenly had zero fear of the Hollywood machine. 00:08:55.799 --> 00:08:58.519 he started actively hacking the blockbuster system. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:00.019 Okay, here's where it gets really interesting 00:09:00.019 --> 00:09:02.179 for me, because he doesn't just use that jungle 00:09:02.179 --> 00:09:04.679 fever momentum to, you know, get slightly bigger 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:08.299 paychecks. He uses it to dictate terms. Jump 00:09:08.299 --> 00:09:11.480 to 1994 pulp fiction. Quentin Tarantino writes 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:13.980 the role of Jules Winfield specifically for him. 00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:17.080 He gets an Oscar nomination, a BAFTA win, and 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:20.299 just attains massive global clout. Massive. And 00:09:20.299 --> 00:09:22.340 look at what he does with that clout when George 00:09:22.340 --> 00:09:24.940 Lucas calls him in 1999. Right, so he's cast 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:28.059 as Jedi master Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequels. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:31.139 And Lucas has this massive dusty battle scene 00:09:31.139 --> 00:09:33.639 planned for Attack of the Clones on the planet 00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:36.679 Geonosis. Right, the arena scene. Exactly. There 00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:38.840 are going to be dozens of Jedis in the arena, 00:09:39.139 --> 00:09:42.320 all swinging standard blue or green lightsabers. 00:09:42.759 --> 00:09:44.779 Jackson looks at the logistics of this scene 00:09:44.779 --> 00:09:47.659 and realizes He's just going to blend right into 00:09:47.659 --> 00:09:50.200 the background. So he actively suggests to George 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:52.539 Lucas, the creator of the entire universe, mind 00:09:52.539 --> 00:09:55.240 you, that he gets a purple lightsaber just so 00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:57.480 he can spot himself in the crowd. If we connect 00:09:57.480 --> 00:10:00.080 this to the bigger picture, the purple lightsaber 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:03.159 isn't just a quirky, funny request on a movie 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:06.899 set. No. It is a master class in personal branding 00:10:06.899 --> 00:10:10.799 and leverage. He is ensuring that in a sea of 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:13.779 visual noise, the audience's eye is magnetically 00:10:13.779 --> 00:10:16.720 drawn directly to him. He hacked the visual language 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:19.539 of Star Wars. Which is brilliant. Just brilliant. 00:10:19.659 --> 00:10:22.100 But I think his absolute masterpiece of leverage 00:10:22.100 --> 00:10:24.240 has to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Oh, 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:25.899 without a doubt. Let's look at the mechanics 00:10:25.899 --> 00:10:28.220 of what happened here. In 2002, Marvel Comics 00:10:28.220 --> 00:10:30.360 is running their ultimate imprint. which was 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:32.700 designed to reboot classic characters, ground 00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:35.419 them in this gritty cinematic realism. Right. 00:10:35.860 --> 00:10:38.779 So writer Mark Millar and his artist are redesigning 00:10:38.779 --> 00:10:41.360 Nick Fury. And instead of creating a new face, 00:10:41.720 --> 00:10:44.639 they literally draw Nick Fury to look exactly 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:47.639 like Samuel L. Jackson. Without a contract, without 00:10:47.639 --> 00:10:51.100 a phone call, without his consent, it is a blatant 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:54.700 unauthorized use of a celebrity likeness by a 00:10:54.700 --> 00:10:57.470 major corporation. Exactly. And Jackson, who 00:10:57.470 --> 00:10:59.610 happens to be a massive comic book nerd, by the 00:10:59.610 --> 00:11:02.450 way, is literally just buying comics one day, 00:11:02.970 --> 00:11:05.929 opens the book, and sees his own face staring 00:11:05.929 --> 00:11:07.970 back at him. Can you imagine? It's like walking 00:11:07.970 --> 00:11:10.330 down the street, finding your face on a giant 00:11:10.330 --> 00:11:12.289 corporate billboard, selling a product without 00:11:12.289 --> 00:11:14.509 your permission, and instead of calling a lawyer 00:11:14.509 --> 00:11:16.909 for a massive financial payout, you walk right 00:11:16.909 --> 00:11:19.049 into the boardroom and demand to be made a senior 00:11:19.049 --> 00:11:21.909 partner. Yeah, because Jackson's agents do contact 00:11:21.909 --> 00:11:24.820 Marvel. But they realize that a one -time copyright 00:11:24.820 --> 00:11:27.899 infringement settlement is thinking small. Demanding 00:11:27.899 --> 00:11:30.100 a stake in the company's future is thinking big. 00:11:30.860 --> 00:11:33.320 So they secure a pledge from Marvel. If Nick 00:11:33.320 --> 00:11:36.120 Fury is ever adapted for the silver screen, Samuel 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.559 L. Jackson gets the role. No additions, no questions 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:42.159 asked. And that single piece of leverage translates 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:45.440 into a massive, unprecedented nine -picture deal, 00:11:45.879 --> 00:11:48.200 starting with Iron Man in 2008. It's incredible. 00:11:48.419 --> 00:11:50.779 He essentially architects his own ubiquity, and 00:11:50.779 --> 00:11:53.220 he does it with wild versatility. I mean, he's 00:11:53.220 --> 00:11:55.299 dominating Marvel. He's in Star Wars. He's the 00:11:55.299 --> 00:11:57.940 absolute muse for Tarantino. And simultaneously, 00:11:58.200 --> 00:12:03.559 he's starring alongside massive... Yes, Tupac 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:07.500 and Juice, Method Man in 187, Snoop Dogg, he 00:12:07.500 --> 00:12:10.159 crosses every conceivable cultural boundary. 00:12:10.220 --> 00:12:12.120 And the financial mechanics of this strategy 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:15.220 are staggering. His films have grossed over $27 00:12:15.220 --> 00:12:19.720 billion worldwide across 152 movies. $27 billion. 00:12:19.879 --> 00:12:22.179 He is the highest -grossing lead actor in the 00:12:22.179 --> 00:12:24.450 history of cinema. The only person technically 00:12:24.450 --> 00:12:26.669 ahead of him is Stan Lee. And that is purely 00:12:26.669 --> 00:12:29.289 a statistical anomaly due to Lee's brief cameos 00:12:29.289 --> 00:12:32.909 in the Marvel films. $27 billion. And what really 00:12:32.909 --> 00:12:35.250 fascinates me is how he handles that unprecedented 00:12:35.250 --> 00:12:38.169 megastar status. Because we are so used to the 00:12:38.169 --> 00:12:41.230 PR -trained, humble brag actor interviews, you 00:12:41.230 --> 00:12:42.629 know? Oh, yeah. I never watch my own movies. 00:12:43.429 --> 00:12:45.190 Exactly. They stare at the floor and say, oh, 00:12:45.250 --> 00:12:48.210 I just can't bear to look at my own face on screen. 00:12:49.469 --> 00:12:52.029 Jackson completely shatters that polite Hollywood 00:12:52.029 --> 00:12:54.669 etiquette. He refuses to perform false humility. 00:12:55.149 --> 00:12:57.789 He buys a ticket, he gets his popcorn, and he 00:12:57.789 --> 00:13:00.009 goes to the theater to watch his own work. I 00:13:00.009 --> 00:13:02.049 love that. Right? He collects action figures 00:13:02.049 --> 00:13:05.389 of his own characters. Jules, Shaft, Mace Windu, 00:13:05.590 --> 00:13:09.330 Frozone. He operates from a place of pure unapologetic 00:13:09.330 --> 00:13:12.169 enjoyment. And why shouldn't he? Why do we expect 00:13:12.169 --> 00:13:14.899 artists to hate their own art? Jackson understands 00:13:14.899 --> 00:13:17.539 the audience because he is his own target audience. 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:20.899 His success isn't an accident. He is literally 00:13:20.899 --> 00:13:23.019 making the exact movies he wants to sit in a 00:13:23.019 --> 00:13:25.500 dark room and watch. And he builds the logistics 00:13:25.500 --> 00:13:28.019 of his life around what makes him happy, like 00:13:28.019 --> 00:13:30.080 the legendary golf clause. Oh, this is where 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:32.860 his leverage just peaks. He loves golf so much 00:13:32.860 --> 00:13:34.940 that he has a specific clause written into his 00:13:34.940 --> 00:13:37.159 movie contracts, allowing him to play during 00:13:37.159 --> 00:13:39.100 film shoots. I mean, the confidence to demand 00:13:39.100 --> 00:13:42.019 that. Right, and how that works practically is 00:13:42.019 --> 00:13:44.460 astounding. It's not just a polite request for 00:13:44.460 --> 00:13:48.139 a dais. He ensures that multi -million dollar, 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:51.240 highly complex production schedules are literally 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:53.679 structured around his tee times. He does not 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:55.879 compromise, not on his schedule and not on his 00:13:55.879 --> 00:13:59.200 image. Back in 1996, he was filming the Great 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:01.960 White Hype. He noticed his hair was thinning, 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:04.200 and rather than doing a Hollywood comb -over 00:14:04.200 --> 00:14:07.559 or getting transplants, he just shaved his head 00:14:07.559 --> 00:14:10.559 bald. A total control of it. Yeah. Now he controls 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:13.120 his look completely, picking out his own wigs 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.179 and hairstyles for every character he plays. 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:18.500 He curates every aspect of his existence. And 00:14:18.500 --> 00:14:21.340 he remains deeply, actively engaged with the 00:14:21.340 --> 00:14:24.139 world outside of Hollywood, too. Like in 2019, 00:14:24.259 --> 00:14:27.100 he took a DNA test that linked his ancestry to 00:14:27.100 --> 00:14:29.870 the Benga people. Wow, yeah, and he didn't just 00:14:29.870 --> 00:14:31.919 you know frame the results for his living room. 00:14:32.019 --> 00:14:34.580 He actually traveled to Africa and became a naturalized 00:14:34.580 --> 00:14:36.740 citizen of Gabon. He just never stops moving. 00:14:36.820 --> 00:14:39.340 Even now, he's a massive cultural force. I mean, 00:14:39.500 --> 00:14:41.759 he appeared in the Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:46.899 LIX halftime show in 2025 as Uncle Sam. And to 00:14:46.899 --> 00:14:48.740 be clear, we are just laying out the facts from 00:14:48.740 --> 00:14:50.899 the sources here, not taking any political sides. 00:14:50.980 --> 00:14:54.059 But he did actively engage in the 2024 political 00:14:54.059 --> 00:14:56.720 cycle by endorsing Kamala Harris. Right. And 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.179 he's still headlining new television, like with 00:14:59.179 --> 00:15:03.070 his upcoming 2025 Paramount Plus series, No Will 00:15:03.070 --> 00:15:05.690 a King. He is operating with a level of freedom, 00:15:06.169 --> 00:15:09.970 success, and just eccentric joy that is practically 00:15:09.970 --> 00:15:12.529 unmatched in the history of the medium. OK, let's 00:15:12.529 --> 00:15:14.669 step back and look at the entire scope of this 00:15:14.669 --> 00:15:18.129 deep dive. We started with a kid in the segregated 00:15:18.129 --> 00:15:21.289 South who literally had to pretend to be other 00:15:21.289 --> 00:15:23.769 people just to bypass a neurological stutter. 00:15:23.970 --> 00:15:26.570 Yeah. We watched him become a militant civil 00:15:26.570 --> 00:15:28.990 rights activist who risked a felony conviction 00:15:28.990 --> 00:15:31.710 and his own life. We followed him into the grueling 00:15:31.710 --> 00:15:33.830 depths of addiction as a New York security guard. 00:15:34.009 --> 00:15:36.549 All of those different lives. Right. And we watched 00:15:36.549 --> 00:15:39.289 him walk out of rehab, transmute that darkness 00:15:39.289 --> 00:15:42.129 into an award at Cannes, and hack the blockbuster 00:15:42.129 --> 00:15:46.009 system to become a $27 billion cinematic titan 00:15:46.009 --> 00:15:48.809 who demands his own purple lightsaber and plays 00:15:48.809 --> 00:15:50.870 golf whenever he wants. This is an incredible 00:15:50.870 --> 00:15:53.139 trajectory. So what does this all mean? Well, 00:15:53.220 --> 00:15:55.100 I think this raises an important question for 00:15:55.100 --> 00:15:57.659 anyone trying to build something lasting. We 00:15:57.659 --> 00:16:00.240 live in an era where professionals are endlessly 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:03.940 coached and sanitized. We are told to hide our 00:16:03.940 --> 00:16:06.720 flaws, to smooth out our rough edges, and to 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:09.440 suppress our strange quirks so we can fit neatly 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:12.299 into a corporate or social mold. Yeah, constantly. 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:15.000 Samuel L. Jackson's life proves that the exact 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:17.799 opposite approach is often the true key to longevity. 00:16:18.740 --> 00:16:20.860 What if the things you are told to suppress? 00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:24.779 Your anger at the status quo, your past mistakes, 00:16:24.940 --> 00:16:27.340 your eccentricities, or even your sputter are 00:16:27.340 --> 00:16:29.440 actually the raw materials for your greatest 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:32.240 leverage. He didn't succeed in spite of his chaotic 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:34.740 foundation. He succeeded because he used every 00:16:34.740 --> 00:16:36.720 single piece of it to build his own leverage. 00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:39.360 He used the sheer weight of his obstacles to 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:41.600 flip the system. Absolutely. Well, thank you 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:43.679 for joining us on this deep dive. I hope you 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:45.820 take a page out of Mr. Jackson's book today. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:49.059 Don't hide your quirks. Demand exactly what you're 00:16:49.059 --> 00:16:51.700 worth and whatever it is you were building. Take 00:16:51.700 --> 00:16:54.559 a moment to sit back unapologetically and enjoy 00:16:54.559 --> 00:16:56.919 your own hard work. And when you finally look 00:16:56.919 --> 00:16:59.600 at your own finished product, never forget to 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:01.539 appreciate the muddy waters it rose from.