Samuel L. Jackson Reveals His Surprising List of Five Favorite Movies He’s Been In

Samuel L. Jackson has always been one of the hardest working people in Hollywood with nearly 200 acting credits to his name. Jackson currently has Spiral playing in theatres and he’s out promoting his next movie, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. This week, Jackson paid a visit to A Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Colbert asked him what his top five Samuel L. Jackson movies are after the iconic actor revealed, “If I’m channel surfing and I haven’t really found anything that I want to watch or I’m not specifically looking for, if I pass something I’m in, I stop and watch it.”

According to Jackson, his favorite movies that feature himself are Renny Harlin’s The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), Joel Schumacher’s A Time To Kill (1996), Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997), François Girard’s The Red Violin (1998), and Kevin Reynolds’ One Eight Seven (1997). Jackson was also asked what his favorite non-Jackson movies were and he answered Gareth Evans’ The Raid (2011), Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972), John Woo’s Hard Boiled (1992), Bill Duke’s Hoodlum (1997), and Ryoo Seung-wan’s The Berlin File (2013). You can watch Jackson’s full interview below:

Jackson has appeared in many Tarantino movies, but he only listed Jackie Brown on his top five. However, the actor did tell Esquire back in 2019 that Stephen, his character from Django Unchained, was his favorite to play.

“I love f***ing Stephen,” Jackson said. “I mean, the dude ran that fucking plantation. Candyland was his fucking plantation. Leo’s out fighting n***ers and doing whatever, running the strip club. Dude’s writing the bills. [Stephen is] making sure the crops get planted. He’s making sure the slaves get sold. He runs that place … He ain’t really got no kids of his own because he ain’t have time to do that. But Leo was basically his kid. And Candyland is his world. He knows outside Candyland, he’s just another [slave] on the plantation.”

As for The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, you can read the official synopsis here: “Bryce – still unlicensed and under scrutiny – is forced into action by Darius and his wife, the infamous international con artist Sonia. As Bryce is driven over the edge by his two most dangerous protectees, the trio get in over their heads in a global plot and soon find that they are all that stand between Europe and a vengeful and powerful madman (Antonio Banderas). Joining in the fun and deadly mayhem is Morgan Freeman as… well, you’ll have to see.”

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is set to hit theaters on June 16th.