Before Samuel L. Jackson became Marvel’s Nick Fury, he was always the superhero of longtime co-star Anthony Mackie.
The “Captain America: The New World Order” actor revealed that Jackson was like a father to him on the set of the early films “The Man” (2005) and “Freedomland” (2006) before the pair joined the MCU in In “The Avengers”. 2012. Mackie and Jackson starred in a total of nine films together over 18 years.
“Sam Jackson taught me a lot, like from afar,” Mackie said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. “Three of my earliest films were with Sam Jackson, and because of that, my label is a complete replica of Sam Jackson. He was literally my working father. He taught me everything about business from afar.”
Mackie continued, “And every night I would ask her a question and she would answer me, ‘Shut up, whore! and I would accept that. But literally, when they see me on set, it’s a direct reflection of how Sam Jackson moved and operated this business, cool and effortless. People did it for him just because he was a good guy.”
The “We Have a Ghost” actor, who recently announced his directorial debut, described the need to “diversify” his career, as taught by Jackson and fellow MCU actors Don Cheadle and Lawrence Fishburne.
“Since the beginning of my career, I’ve always imitated and followed Don Cheadle and Samuel L. Jackson,” Mackie said. “Samuel L. Jackson had a very interesting career because it started so late and he was so late in the game before people realized who he was. If you look at him, Don Cheadle and Lawrence Fishburne, they really put together a resume. They really followed their roles. They really chose roles that showed them as individuals, to put them in a room with other people, to give them different roles.”
He added: “If you do it that way, if you do it strategically, it gives you more opportunities to be more diverse. I look at action as an investment. You want to diversify your portfolio. You don’t want to put all your chips in action movies, you don’t want to put all your chips in AT&T. You want to invest in everything so you don’t end up in a situation where you can only do one thing.”
(embed)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7BfExPKUUQ(/embed)
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