Samuel L Jackson has two red flags in movie contracts that he never agrees to

Samuel L Jackson has urged all actors to 'cross out' two sinister phrases if they see them in a film contract.

Jackson is one of the most bankable and recognizable people in Hollywood, not to mention one of the most quotable.

This is for good reason mind you, the star has been gracing TV and film screens for decades now and if nothing else, even if the film is awful, you know you are going to have a good time watching Jackson work.

And while it can be easy to be typecasted as the guy that simply says ‘motherf**ker’ a lot, Jackson has made sure that he has a whole host of different kind of roles under his belt, from comedies, dramas and action films, the 77-year-old has done it all.

In fact, according to his IMDb page, Jackson has an impressive 210 acting credits to his name with another nine upcoming.

But, with the prestige of appearing big franchise and so many films comes some potential pitfalls and things to watch out for, and it’s lucky that Jackson is wise to these things and looks after his own best interests.

Jackson has an impressive 210 acting credits to his name (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

That means – in this unprecedented technological age – looking after your image rights and your personal brand in ways that we couldn’t have imagined even a short few years ago.

Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2023, Samuel said: “Ever since I’ve been in the Marvel Universe, every time you change costumes in a Marvel movie, they scan you.

“Ever since I did Captain Marvel, and they did the Lola project where they de-aged me and everything else, it’s like, ‘Well, I guess they can do this anytime they want to do it if they really want to!’

“It could be something to worry about.”

It sure could – if they can scan you, what else could they do at a later date with that scanned data?

Jackson's interview came shortly before the Hollywood actors' strike, which saw A-listers push back against the increasing use of AI in the film industry.

His advice has become even more important in the years since, as in 2025 we were introduced to the 'first AI actress', while legislators scrambled to put up additional safeguards to protect actors' likenesses from AI.

Jackson continued: “Future actors should do what I always do when I get a contract and it has the words ‘in perpetuity’ and ‘known and unknown’ on it: I cross that s**t out.

“It’s my way of saying, ‘No, I do not approve of this'.”

Jackson made it clear he doesn't want his image or brand mismanaged because he signed a contract (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)

It’s a clever way of meaning that you can’t be digitally misrepresented, but also a great way of making sure that you retain the rights to your own work, as well as your own likeness.

Samuel L has been in the game long enough to have picked up a few things that others might not have.

So, if you’re in the game – or any game where this might be a potential issue down the line – it’s a valuable piece of advice, and one that you should think about given the way things are going.

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