On the surface, some fans may feel it is the apex of hypocrisy for Samuel L. Jackson to criticize radio star Joe Rogan for his gratuitous use of the N-word for years. However, Jackson used the word while executing the portrayal of his film characters, while he accuses Rogan of uttering it for quick laughs.
Two of Jackson’s highest-profile roles over his illustrious career, Django Unchained and Pulp Fiction (the latter for which he received an Oscar nomination), featured Jackson uttering the N-word multiple times throughout the movies.
It is within this context that Jackson lambasts Rogan for using the racial epithet just for the sake of jokes.
“He is saying nobody understood the context when he said it,” Jackson explained to Sunday Times. “But he shouldn’t have said it. It’s not the context, dude — it’s that he was comfortable doing it.”
Jackson continues, adding that Rogan should “say that you’re sorry because you want to keep your money. But you were having fun and you say you did it because it was entertaining.”
Rogan eventually caved to public pressure to say his use of the N-word is “the most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”
Jackson is not buying Rogan’s supposed contrition. He said there is a stark difference uttering the N-word to tell a larger story as opposed to using it to elicit cheap laughs: “It needs to be an element of what the story is about. A story is context — but just to elicit a laugh? That’s wrong,” Jackson explained.
Jackson, who is the highest-grossing star in Hollywood history, once implored Leonardo DiCaprio that he had to use the N-word in the slavery-era film Django Unchained.
