Samuel L. Jackson is nothing less than a Hollywood icon and he’s been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the groundbreaking franchise’s earliest days, so it was with great excitement that we discovered he would be returning to the role of Nick Fury in Captain Marvel. Jackson is playing a younger version of his character, and during a visit to the LA-based set of the massive Marvel movie Nerdist got to take part in a Q&A with the brilliant actor which saw him open up about his close relationship with Brie Larson as well as growing up around strong women who inspired him.

A question about the importance of taking a supporting role in the first female-led Marvel movie incited Jackson to share some personal thoughts about his interactions with the strong women in his life. “I grew up in a house full of women who always made me feel special and made me tow a specific line. I understand a lot about who they are and what they felt just because I heard it and I had to experience it every day, how hard the world is for women specifically. And I guess as I got older, because my world was specifically black and white when I grew up ’cause I grew up in segregation, I didn’t talk to white women ’cause I didn’t know any. I only talked to black women, so I know what their worldview was and what it meant. And it wasn’t until I got older that I realized that white women might be as beat down as we were in a specific way.”

His admiration for his co-star shone through as he shared how special of a project Captain Marvel is for the both of them and for film fans everywhere. “To work with Bri–who has a very politically aware sense of self, and who’s not afraid to use her platform to push female agendas–has been a real joy,” Jackson explained. “I did Kong: Skull Island with her, so we went all over the world. And then I did her movie, Unicorn Store. So to be a part of this specific story where she has such an enormous responsibility–especially in the success of the Marvel Universe and what it means every time there’s a Marvel film, and to look at what happened last year with Wonder Woman, DC almost figured it out with that movie–to know what’s going to happen when this movie does actually hit theaters for women and little girls is going to be amazing. Just because of who she is and her understanding of her responsibility to not the male audience, but the female audience that’s coming to this film.”

Jackson continued emphatically. “To be able to be alongside her, support her, and to give her what she needs to be this strong character questing her self-identity, number one. I want Brie to succeed in a very real, very strong way. And to have the opportunity to come into this particular place where they actually know how to do this, they figured it out.”

The veteran MCU actor clearly knows and has reverence for the house style and his place in it. “There’s a Marvel playbook that works,” Jackson said. “I mean, as out of the box that people think Black Panther was, it’s part of the Marvel playbook. It just happened to have black people in it. And this is a Marvel movie being made through the Marvel playbook and it just happens to be a strong female character in it. And it will hopefully incite people the way Black Panther incited us racially when we saw it. So I’m really proud to be part of it.”

We can’t wait to see Jackson return to the MCU when Captain Marvel hits screens on March 8th.

Images: Marvel, Disney