Though he's been playing Nick Fury since 2008, Samuel L. Jackson said he has no plans to stop anytime soon.
The actor spoke to Collider while promoting his new film, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, and the conversation eventually turned to his long-running role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Jackson first showed up as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury for the Iron Man post-credits scene. Since then, he's played a pivotal role in numerous MCU movies, and when Secret Invasion arrives, he'll bring the character to TV as well. And despite spending so long playing the same person, Jackson said it's still fun to do each time.
"Yeah. I love Nick Fury. Of course. Come on," Jackson said when asked if the role was still exciting for him. "He’s a guy who has no superpowers, who’s in charge of people who have superpowers, and they let him be. That’s something special about him. He’s a leader of men that are very different, in another kind of way. It’s very satisfying to be a part of a world that I admired for so long when I was a kid. I still buy comic books. I still go to comic book stores. I still read them. But to be able to be that character in that, it’s the same as when I was doing Afro Samurai or any of those comic book characters. It means something to be part of a cultural canon that people revere and that they respect, in another way."
For Jackson, each character he plays is a memorable one. But for the actor, there are certain figures like Fury or Mace Windu from the Star Wars universe that he can keep returning to over and over.
"They all stick with you forever, in a specific kind of way," Jackson said of his roles. "That’s always a way to tap back into them or to think about them and care about them and love them. But you have to move on to the next story. Storytellers tell stories, and unless it’s part of the same thing, if it’s not Nick Fury, if it’s not Mace Windu in Star Wars, carrying on that particular story, then you move on to the next thing or the next story. If that character’s not part of it, then you have to create a whole new character or a whole new way of thinking about the thing you’re approaching."
Secret Invasion does not yet have a release date on Disney+.
Source: Collider