"Samuel L. Jackson Shares Bruce Willis' Die Hard Advice, Realizes Its Value After MCU's 9-Movie Nick Fury Deal"

In a legendary piece of advice from one Hollywood icon to another, Samuel L. Jackson shared the wisdom Bruce Willis imparted to him while filming the 1994 action thriller, Die Hard With a Vengeance. Willis advised Jackson to find a character that would remain beloved by audiences, serving as a reliable fallback even if other projects didn't succeed. "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 recounted in a special feature for Vanity Fair, celebrating Willis' 70th birthday.

Willis used the examples of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator, Sylvester Stallone's Rocky and Rambo, and his own John McClane to illustrate his point. Jackson didn't fully grasp the significance of this advice until he landed the role of Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "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,'" he reflected.

Jackson first donned the eyepatch of Nick Fury in a post-credits cameo in 2008's Iron Man. He fully embraced the role in Iron Man 2 in 2010 and has since reprised it in 10 films, three TV series, and two video games. His latest appearances as Nick Fury include the 2023 film The Marvels, the series Secret Invasion, and a voice role in the Season 2 finale of the animated series Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

In a light-hearted moment, Jackson humorously pondered his longevity in relation to his Marvel contract. Speaking to GQ in September 2024, he said, "I knew I had a nine-picture deal when Kevin [Feige] said, he was like, ‘We wanna offer you a nine-picture deal’ I was like, 'How long I gotta stay alive to make nine movies?'" He was surprised by the rapid production pace of the Marvel machine, noting, "It's not the quickest process in the world and people don't do it, so I didn't know they were gonna make nine movies in like two-and-a-half years. Which is kind of crazy. I was like 'Oh s—t, I'm using up my contracts!' but it worked out."