Samuel L. Jackson has opened up about his 1992 feud with Spike Lee, admitting it took more than 20 years to rebuild their relationship.

In a wide-ranging interview with Vulture, Jackson revealed that he and the director fell out over Malcolm X salary dispute, which ultimately led to Jackson turning down the role of Baines in the historical drama. The part was instead played by Albert Hall.

“I actually read with most of the people who auditioned for Malcolm X,” said Jackson, who had previously starred in Lee’s Jungle Fever, School Daze, and Do the Right Thing.

“I was supposed to be the guy that turned Malcolm X on to Islam in prison. I forget who played that role. But it was still down to that Spike Lee scale-plus-10 salary thing. I was like, ‘I’m not going to work for no scale-plus-10.’”

The “scale plus 10” salary refers to the minimum daily or weekly pay rate for actors established by the Screen Actors Guild. The “plus 10” is the 10 per cent of an actor’s pay that goes toward their agent.

Jackson continued: “I used to call my agent every day to see if I had any auditions, callbacks, whatever. And my line to her every day was, ‘Hollywood call?’ She was like, ‘No, sir.’ So one day I called, she said, ‘As a matter of fact, yeah they did. You just won an award at the Cannes Film Festival.’ And I’m like, ‘What? For what?’ She said, ‘”Jungle Fever.”‘ I said, ‘They don’t give supporting actor awards at Cannes.’ She’s like, ‘They made up one for you.’ Get the fuck out of here! ‘And consequently, these people in Hollywood want to see you for this movie White Sands.”

The actor added: “So I took White Sands instead of Malcolm X and we [Spike and I] fell out.”

Samuel L. Jackson attends the 76th Annual Tony Awards at United Palace Theatre on June 11, 2023 in New York City. Credit: Bruce Glikas/WireImage.
Jackson went on to credit Lee’s Jungle Fever for launching his Hollywood career. “The majority of Black people in America at that time, at a certain economic strata, had a [character] Gator in their family,” he said, recalling that he had recently left rehab before taking on the role of an addict.

“I was clean, but I was still detoxing. I had done my 28 days. When I got to set, I really didn’t need makeup. The first day I was on set, I was going to craft service, and the Fruit of Islam ho were guarding the set were trying to run me out ‘cause they thought I was a neighbourhood crackhead.”

Jackson and Lee later mended their relationship over their mutual love of Park Chan-Wook’s Oldboy, which Lee remade in 2013 with Jackson starring alongside Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Olsen.

“[Our] wives would interact often, and we would all end up going to dinner together,” Jackson told Playboy at the time. “Our relationship healed over those dinners and conversations. He told me at dinner he was going to remake Oldboy, and I was like, ‘Can I be in it?’”

Jackson added that working with Lee again “was just like we’d never stopped. He’s very efficient, knows what he wants and doesn’t get in my way artistically–whatever I come with, I come with, and it’s cool.”