Samuel L. Jackson Opens Up About Playing a Crack Addict After Overcoming Addiction

Samuel L. Jackson is on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter‘s latest issue, out now.

Here’s what the 70-year-old star had to say…

On 2019 politics: “When I hear ‘Make America Great Again,’ I hear something else. When I see the president and Mitch McConnell and Jeff Sessions going on with that twang, that’s a trip in memory hell. And that does anger me.”

On dealing with crack addiction in the ‘80s and ‘90s while also understudying on Broadway: “I had to sit there every night on the steps behind the theater and listen to Charles Dutton do that part. I’d sit there and smoke crack while I listened to the play. It made me f–king crazy. Because I’d be listening to him doing the lines and going, ‘That’s not right!’”

On why he chose to play a crack addict in Jungle Fever after overcoming his addiction: “All the people in rehab were trying to talk me out of it. ‘You’re going to be messing around with crack pipes. All your triggers will be there. Blah, blah, blah.’ I was like, ‘You know what? If for no other reason than I never want to see you motherf–kers again, I will never pick up another drug.’ ’Cause I hated their asses.”

On his willingness to play Nick Fury well into his 80s (if Marvel can afford him): “I could be the Alec Guinness of Marvel movies.”

For more from Samuel, head to HollywoodReporter.com.