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SPEAKING FEE RANGE ** Please note that while this speaker’s specific speaking fee falls within the range posted above (for Continental U.S. based events), fees are subject to change. For current fee information or international event fees (which are generally 50-75% more than U.S based event fees), please contact us. $75,000 and above |
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BOOK SAMUEL JACKSON speakers@coreagency.com |
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SPEAKING FEE RANGE* $75,000 and above |
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Book Samuel Jackson speakers@coreagency.com |
- As the second highest-grossing film star of all time, he has honed his craft through and knows how to identify a project that fits his acting style.
- Jackson’s talks cover his background growing up in the segregated south, as a militant civil rights student in college, struggling stage actor, recovering addict and multi-million dollar Hollywood actor.
- Passion, intelligence, humor and sincerity characterize his mesmerizing storytelling about his life and struggle to succeed in acting.
- Jackson has appeared in more than 100 films and commands an average of $68 million per film.
Samuel L. Jackson is an actor, film producer and former civil rights activist known for playing strong characters. His appearance in more than 100 films has earned him a reputation as one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood. Some of his film credits include “Die Hard with a Vengeance,” “Jurassic Park,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Shaft,” “Patriot Games,” “Snakes on a Plane,” the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999-2005) and a dozen Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
He came to prominence in the 1990s and has starred in films nearly every year since. He most recently appeared in the TV show “Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and has voiced several animated characters for Pixar’s “The Incredibles,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” and in the video game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.” He is the second highest-grossing film star of all time, with earnings averaging $68.3 million per film.
Jackson was raised by his mother and extended family in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He attended several segregated schools and stuttered as a child. He planned to major in marine biology at Morehouse College in Atlanta, but after joining a local acting group to earn some extra credit, was bit by the acting bug and switched his major.
After the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackson attended his funeral as one of the ushers, saying in an interview: "I was angry about the assassination, but I wasn't shocked by it. I knew that change was going to take something different – not sit-ins, not peaceful coexistence." In 1969, he and several students held members of the Morehouse College board of trustees hostage, demanding changes in the school's curriculum and governance. The college agreed to change its policies, but Jackson was convicted of unlawful confinement and suspended from the college. In 1972, he returned to earn his Bachelor of Arts in Drama and began his career on the stage.
Early in his acting career, he was mentored by Morgan Freeman and befriended by director Spike Lee, who cast him in several small roles in the 1980s. Also in the 1980s and 90s, Jackson struggled with addiction to both cocaine and heroin, on which he overdosed several times, but he overcame this struggle with rehab and therapy. Jackson has said that he chooses roles that are "exciting to watch" and have an "interesting character inside of a story.” He has been nominated for an Academy Award and three Golden Globes, and he has won a BAFTA Award, Black Reel Award, several NAACP Image Awards and Film Critic Awards, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BET Network.
He has been married to his producer and actor wife since 1980, and they have one daughter. Their charitable foundation support causes such as education, fighting Alzheimer's disease, and raising awareness of testicular cancer.
In this Black History Month speech, Samuel L. Jackson starts, “I was born in Washington, D.C., in a time way before any of you can imagine there was time—1948.” He continues, “My educational background is basically a part of that—segregation. Everybody who taught me was black, everybody I went to school with was black. My only interaction with other races was when I got to high school and was part of the model United Nations.”
He talks about his experience getting started in the acting world in New York City and working with Morgan Freeman as his understudy. “I used to call my agent all the time and ask her if Hollywood called, and she’d always say, ‘No Sam, not today.’ But one day I called her and asked if Hollywood called, and she said, ‘Actually, they did.’ It was amazing – Spike (Lee) had taken ‘Jungle Fever’ to the Cannes Film Festival and I was awarded a Best Supporting Actor award. That’s the first—and only—time that award has ever been given at the Cannes Film festival. Amazingly after that, Hollywood called.”
He goes on to describe the role he played—Gator, a crackhead. “For me, it was a revelation because I had been Gator for the last two years in New York. I was in my own way for a long time, but doing that role was a very cathartic change for me. I was focusing on something other than my own problems. I had a choice at that point.” He says he didn’t want to mess up the better and higher paying acting opportunities he was receiving as a clean and sober actor, so he knew it was time to make a permanent change.
Samuel L. Jackson calls on his thespian roots in his presentation, “A Night with Samuel L. Jackson.” Despite playing a collection of action hero characters and intense “bad guy” and authoritarian roles, it’s Jackson’s passion and intelligence that continues to mesmerize audiences.
In his presentation, Jackson talks about growing up in the segregated south, abandoned by his father whom he only saw twice in his life. He tells the audience about the impact Martin Luther King, Jr., had on his life and how the Black Power movement spoke to a deep anger inside of him to make things right for African Americans. Narrowly escaping what likely would have resulted in his death by being involved with the armed civil rights group, he left that movement, returned to school and pursued drama for his career.
Jackson candidly shares his ups and downs, his bad behavior and addictions, and gives credit to those who “helped save his life,” particularly his daughter and wife, to whom he has been married for nearly 40 years. He talks about the value of mentors, as he found in Morgan Freeman, and in networking, through which he got his biggest Hollywood break in “Pulp Fiction” in 1994. Jackson also talks about the charitable causes which are his heart’s passion, and what his foundation is doing to help address issues like equitable education, Alzheimer’s and testicular cancer.
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