What Makes Samuel L. Jackson One Bad Motherfucker, with Gavin Edwards

Pop Literacy

It’s hard to imagine a time when Samuel L. Jackson wasn’t the unassailable pinnacle of Hollywood cool, but cool is made, not born. And that’s where Gavin Edwards’ new biography of the actor, Bad Motherfucker, comes in. Edwards charts Jackson’s rise from his southern upbringing to his radicalization at Morehouse College, through his struggles with addiction and, finally, his triumph as the highest-grossing actor of all time. In this episode, we talk to Gavin about the definition of cool, Jackson’s contentious relationship with frequent collaborator Spike Lee, and what Gavin discovered from watching all 140 of Jackson’s films.

Read more:

• Bad Motherfucker: The Life and Movies of Samuel L. Jackson, the Coolest Man in Hollywood by Gavin Edwards
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