Samuel L. Jackson has been known to drop a few f-bombs in his movies, but it turns out the foul language serves a hidden purpose.

On today’s episode of The Howard Stern Show, Jackson revealed he still suffers from the remnants of a debilitating childhood stutter. As a kid, Jackson says he was bullied “to the point that I stopped speaking for almost a year in school.”

But for some reason, Jackson says the word m———– helps him control the speech impediment. “I have no idea [how] but it just does,” he laughed. “It clicks a switch that stops the d-d-d b-b-b, because me I stuttered really, really, really badly for a long time.”

This revelation puts a whole new perspective on perhaps his most famous movie line from Snakes on a Plane, when his character emphatically declares, “I have had it with these m———— snakes on this m———— plane!”

Beyond cursing, Jackson says he taught himself how to control the stutter without any formal speech therapy. “I read a lot,” he tells Stern. “I read things about breathing exercises, I actually went to the library to combat stuttering.”

The hard work eventually paid off, but that didn’t stop him from having to fend off bullies in the meantime. “Yeah I fought a bit,” he admits. Asked if we won, Jackson joked, “I could then [but] not anymore. I’m too old now.”