There are very few A-list actors who’ve been together with their significant others as long as Samuel L. Jackson. The “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist” actor has been married to his wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson for 44 years — an impressive feat for any couple.
But during his latest interview with AARP The Magazine, he revealed the things they’ve had to overcome throughout their relationship, mainly pointing the blame at himself.
When asked, “How have you kept it going?” Jackson stated, “A lot of tolerance, because everybody’s got flaws, and not giving up when it would be easy to give up. I’ve done s**t in my marriage that’s crazy, you know? She has, too, in her head, or whatever in reality, but you got to go, ‘Is that a breakup offense?’ Or is it just that we need to spend a little time together and get some understanding about it?”
He adds, “Or there are certain things that you learn to ignore about people — that she’s learned to ignore about me. And one of the things she had to accept is that I’m going to go to work. I’m going to go to work all the time until, you know, it’s time.”
While some of those flaws Jackson is referencing may be about private matters we’re not privy to, it could also be about his past addiction to drugs, which he’s publicly opened up about.
During a 2016 interview with The Guardian, he shared, “ I had a very good theatre reputation. Granted, I was a f***ing drug addict and I was out of my mind a lot of the time, but I had a good reputation. Showed up on time, knew my lines, hit my marks. I just wasn’t making a lot of money, but I was very satisfied artistically.”
The couple met while living in Atlanta in 1968. Jackson was attending Morehouse and Richardson was attending Spelman. Both actors, the couple starred in a production of “The Sale.”
More than 50 years later, the theatre where they performed in their first production together is now called the LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson Performing Arts Center.