Samuel L. Jackson Weighs In On Joe Rogan’s Use of N-Word, Why He Told Leo DiCaprio He Had to Say It

“He is saying nobody understood the context when he said it,” the MCU star told the Sunday Times in a recent interview. “But he shouldn’t have said it. It’s not the context, dude — it’s that he was comfortable doing it.”

“Say that you’re sorry because you want to keep your money,” he went on, “but you were having fun and you say you did it because it was entertaining.”

Rogan said in his apology he would never use the n-word again and called the controversy “the most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”

Meanwhile, Jackson went on to explain the difference between using the word thoughtfully to tell a larger story versus just for a cheap joke: “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.”

The blockbuster actor, who is the US’ highest grossing star of all time, went on to admit he had encouraged Leonardo DiCaprio to use the word in “Django Unchained.”

“While we were rehearsing [the slave movie] Django Unchained, Leo [DiCaprio] said, ‘I don’t know if I can say ‘n*****’ this many times.’ Me and Quentin said that you have to,” he explained.

“Every time someone wants an example of overuse of the n-word, they go to Quentin — it’s unfair,” Jackson said of the director he’s collaborated with on six films. “He’s just telling the story and the characters do talk like that.”

“When Steve McQueen does it, it’s art. He’s an artiste. Quentin’s just a popcorn film-maker,” he said of how the legendary director is often viewed.