Samuel L. Jackson reflects on his success in Hollywood.
on Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist premiere on Wednesday, Sept. 4, Jackson, 75, spoke exclusively with PEOPLE about his decades-long career as an actor and why he chose the limited series as his latest project.
“When you’re a young actor and you go to auditions, you always feel like you’re very lucky when you get that job,” he said. “And as you grow or as your success grows, or like mine did when people started sending me stuff, I had to start making decisions about what I wanted to do. And you can make bad choices, you can make good choices.”
“I was a little lucky,” he added. “I like all kinds of movies, but I’m kind of specific about what I want to see myself in or things I want to see when I was a young person or a young actor, you know. I want to be in something like that. So if I read something like that, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I want to do it so I can see myself in it.’ I made some good decisions and I was lucky to do that.”
LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson at the world premiere of Peacock’s “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist” at Jazz at Lincoln Center on September 4, 2024.
Theo Wargo/WireImage
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He also noted that he’s been fortunate to work on “some big franchise movies” with a “great character,” referring to his recurring role as Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“You know, it’s not often that someone says I want you to be in my movie and I want to give you a nine-picture deal. So I ended up being Nick Fury a lot,” he explained.
Jackson, who appears in the new Peacock series as crime boss Frank Moten alongside Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Hart, Don Cheadle and Terrence Howard, told PEOPLE that Fight night had a personal connection to him, as he was in Atlanta when the events depicted in the limited series took place.
The series takes place in October 1970 following Muhammad Ali’s return to the boxing ring, which drew high profile people from all over the United States to witness the GOAT in action. The evening’s events included an after party where an armed robbery left its mark on Atlanta. The robbers allegedly seized $1 million in cash, jewelry and other valuables.
“I know it’s the real thing. I know there was a fight. I know there was a robbery and I know people died,” Pulp Fiction the actor said, adding that the story of what really happened developed over time. “But us black people, after the robbery happened, the mythology became bigger than the robbery. They stole $9 million. So and so took a mink coat… They stole a guy’s car. I was like damn, they didn’t did all that.”
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From left: Terrence Howard, Kevin Hart, Don Cheadle, Taraji P. Henson and Samuel L. Jackson at the Peacock’s “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist” World Premiere on September 4, 2024.
Theo Wargo/WireImage
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The Jurassic Park the actor concluded that “it was interesting” to work on a project that allowed him to “take reality and mythology and put flesh on the bones of the mythology, whatever it is.”
“There aren’t many people who aren’t killed, but it was fun to kill them on screen,” Jackson added.
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The first three episodes Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist now airing on Peacock. The remaining episodes will be released every week on Thursdays.
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Source: HIS Education