Samuel L. Jackson says Brie Larson won’t be toppled by “incel dudes who hate strong women”

When it comes to his MCU compatriot Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson isn’t too worried about the more loser-ly factions of the Marvel fanbase tarnishing her shine. According to Jackson, the Captain Marvel star is a “stronger person than people give her credit for,” right down to the way Larson has responded to consistent and aggressive trolling from Marvel fans.

“We bonded through the election while we were doing her movie when Donald Trump won,” Jackson recalls of his relationship with Larson in a new conversation with Rolling Stone’s Marlow Stern. The pair met during the filming of 2017's Kong: Skull Island; Jackson later went on to act in Larson’s feature directorial debut Unicorn Store.

“She was broken and I was like, ‘Don’t let ‘em break you. You have to be strong now,’” Jackson recalls. “Then, when she got Captain Marvel, she called me and was like, ‘They want me in the Marvel Universe. Should I do it?’ And I was like, ‘Hell yeah! Let’s do it!’”

As history now reflects, taking on Captain Marvel only required additional strength from Larson, who faced serious trolling—a vast majority of it sexist—from an especially virulent corner of the Marvel fanbase. But Jackson says that Larson is “not going to let any of that stuff destroy her.”

“These incel dudes who hate strong women, or the fact that she’s a feminist who has an opinion and expressed it? Everybody wants people to be who they want them to be,” Jackson says of Larson’s naysayers. “She is who she is, and she’s genuinely that.” If her burgeoning career as a YouTuber has anything to say about that, Jackson is spot on.