Samuel L. Jackson says acting is easy, but the process is hard

Actor Samuel L. Jackson has enjoyed decades on the screen and now has clarified that it is not hard to make a movie, but aspects of the experience can be difficult to deal with for seasoned performers, too.

Movies are easy. The hard part about doing a movie is getting up, and the amount of time that you’re there all day. The average movie day is somewhere between 12 and about 16 hours. Out of the 12 hour day, I’d say you work an hour and a half, straight up. Because you go in and do 10, 15, 20 seconds. I get irritated with the process sometimes because it’s like, we’re going to take four hours to do 15 seconds of some movie. Movies are easy man. I bump heads with directors from time to time. I have a thing in my head, I see a movie before I do it. I don’t argue with some of them, But sometimes people do get in and over their heads.

The Nick Fury and Snakes on a Plane actor made the comments about his career during an interview with Desus & Mero published Thursday. During the chat they also spoke about the work he had to do to get to where he is, health issues his family members have had and Jackson revealed he initially saw live theater as the lowest rung of acting.

I always figured theater was the mailroom. I figured if I was lucky enough I would get a commercial, make some money and then I would get a soap, then if I was lucky enough I would get a TV show and then you get discovered and become a movie star. That ain’t the way it works. The business is the business. The business aspect didn’t hit me for a while.

Outside of his return as Nick Fury in Secret Invasion, Jackson will be doing The Piano Lesson on Broadway this year.