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Actor Samuel L. Jackson previously admitted that he quit his plant-based diet for a film role.
According to Jackson, the makers of 2016’s The Legend of Tarzan planned to fire him if he didn’t gain weight. Jackson was plant-based at the time but stopped in order to bulk up.
In the movie, he played a fictionalized version of the lawyer and activist George Washington Williams opposite Alexander Skarsgard as the titular Tarzan. Jackson said that between getting cast in Tarzan and shooting he had lost around 30 pounds for a different role.
“My agent called and said ‘They’re going to fire you if you don’t gain 20 pounds.’ She’s like, ‘They want you to be formidable.’ I said, ‘I thought being thin like this would make Alexander look bigger,” explained Jackson. “I went out that night and bought a three-stack burger and stopped being a vegan pretty much immediately.”
Jackson made the comments nearly a decade ago in an interview with AllHipHop, and they resurfaced earlier this month in an article by Far Out Magazine. In 2017, Jackson confirmed in an Autocomplete Interview for WIRED that he used to be plant-based, but “not anymore.”
Read more: Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst Eats Vegan Wings On ‘Hot Ones’
Jackson went plant-based because he was ‘just trying to live forever’
Jackson first mentioned adopting a plant-based diet in a 2013 interview with Yahoo! Movies.
When asked about looking “remarkably trim” at a red carpet event for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Jackson replied that his secret is his “new vegan diet.” When asked why he went plant-based, Jackson added that he was “just trying to live forever.”
Several recent studies have indicated the health benefits of eating more whole plant foods. A major 20-year review published in 2024 that found plant-based diets can significantly improve health and lower the risk of developing heart disease and cancer.
Being plant-based also need not be an obstacle for those looking to bulk up. The last year has seen a wide range of achievements by vegan athletes in bodybuilding, powerlifting, running, arm wrestling, cycling, and more. At the end of 2024, a nutritional study funded by the beef industry inadvertently revealed that plant protein can have the same advantages as meat.
Read more: Experts Recommend US Dietary Guidelines Prioritize Plant-Based Proteins
