How Harrison Ford became Samuel L Jackson’s career-long rival: “Might catch him”
To say Samuel L Jackson has a different outlook on several aspects of Hollywood superstardom from many of his peers would be an understatement.
Most of them will say it’s a great honour even to be nominated for an Oscar, but he doesn’t tow that company line: he only believes it’s an honour if you win. Many stars will say they can’t watch themselves onscreen because all they see are their faults. Jackson? He doesn’t buy that. He reckons those actors are lying, and they actually love watching themselves – just like he does. There’s also something else that he views differently than most of his A-list compatriots, though, and it’s because he has no problem admitting he’s a competitive son of a gun.
In 2016, Jackson had a customarily busy year, with three big screen efforts seeing release alongside two documentaries he appeared in. One of his theatrical releases was Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, in which he played the villainous undead ghoul Mr Barron, a character he said was “definitely in the top five of the most interesting” villains he’d played in his storied career.
Indeed, making a movie like Miss Peregrine’s – an effects-filled dark fantasy about superpowered children – was a fitting choice for Jackson, who has always approached his career with remarkably little pretension. He grew up loving comic books, science fiction, and blockbuster movies, so he has always had a blast making those kinds of films. The same year, he also starred in The Legend of Tarzan and had several more crowd-pleasers lined up for the following year, including Kong: Skull Island, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, and XXX: The Return of Xander Cage.
Naturally, starring in this brand of blockbuster so regularly has made Jackson a force to be reckoned with at the box office. However, at that time, he had recently been usurped as the highest-grossing actor in history by his career-long rival in busting blocks: Harrison Ford. After all, the iconic Indiana Jones star had returned as Han Solo in that year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and that behemoth’s $2.07billion worldwide return catapulted him above Jackson into the top spot.
Instead of pretending the box office rankings don’t mean anything to him as most actors would likely do, Jackson admitted that he was fully aware of Ford’s threat to his supremacy. Fortunately, he believed he was far enough ahead that one movie couldn’t have made such a difference. “I didn’t realise that that film had moved him ahead of me in that way,” Jackson mused before revealing his confidence that his upcoming slate would vault him right back into prime position.
“I think I might have caught him,” Jackson explained. “Tarzan – he was only 50-70million ahead of me, something like that. So Tarzan might have helped me reclaim the throne already. But if not, maybe this will do it, and for sure, Incredibles 2 will do it, or maybe Skull Island. I have a couple of films coming out that might catch him.”
When it was pointed out to Jackson that Ford was bringing some heavy artillery in the coming years with more Star Wars films, plus his returns to Indiana Jones and Blade Runner, he remained calm. After all, he had the ultimate trump card up his sleeve. “Well, I also still have the Marvel Universe,” he reasoned, referencing his recurring role as superspy Nick Fury in the biggest ongoing franchise in Hollywood history. “It will be neck and neck for a while.”
In truth, Jackson’s position as one of Marvel’s featured players ultimately meant Ford’s time at the top was short-lived. Fast-forward to 2025, and Jackson is firmly back in pole position as the highest-grossing actor of all time, while Ford isn’t even in the top 25.
