Samuel L. Jackson Reveals the Advice Bruce Willis Gave Him During Die Hard — and He Finally Realized It With That 9-Movie Deal to Play Nick Fury in the MCU

Legend to legend, this is sage advice. During the filming of the 1994 action classic, Die Hard With a Vengeance, Bruce Willis offered Samuel L. Jackson some invaluable career counsel.

"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 recalled in a Vanity Fair article celebrating Willis' 70th birthday.

"He said, 'Arnold [Schwarzenegger]’s got Terminator. Sylvester [Stallone]’s got Rocky and Rambo. I’ve got John McClane.' I’m like, 'Oh, okay.' And 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.' "

Last year, Jackson humorously reflected on his nine-film contract, initially questioning his ability to complete it. He also admitted to underestimating the speed of Marvel's production.

"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 told GQ in September 2024.

"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."