Samuel L. Jackson once starred in the hit action thriller Snakes on a Plane. But at the time, some believed doing the movie would do his career more harm than good.

Why Samuel L. Jackson did ‘Snakes on a Plane’

Samuel L. Jackson being honored at the Icon Mann dinner event.

Samuel L. Jackson | Earl Gibson III/Getty Images

Snakes on a Plane was a 2006 feature film that saw Jackson playing FBI agent Neville Flynn. Neville would find himself on board of a plane with several passengers that would soon be crawling with deadly snakes. The title of the film was what initially piqued Jackson’s interest in the movie.

“Snakes on a Plane. I thought, ‘Oh, s***, I need to be in that,” Jackson once told Entertainment Weekly.

What further attracted Jackson to the project was that someone who he personally trusted was originally directing the film.

“I saw that my friend Ronnie Yu was directing it, so I immediately emailed him and said: ‘Are you really directing a movie called Snakes on a Plane?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah. Why?’ And I said, ‘Because I want to be in it,’” Jackson remembered. “He said ‘For real?!’”

Even the studio behind the project was surprised that Jackson wanted to be a part of Snakes on a Plane.

“He told New Line, and New Line was like, ‘Are you sure?’ One thing turned to another, and as it happened, Ronnie ended up not doing the picture,” Jackson recalled. “They said, ‘You still want to do it?’ I said. ‘It’s still called Snakes on a Plane, right?’”