June 10 (UPI) -- Samuel L. Jackson says he was part of a "community" of actors who supported each other in his early career.
The 72-year-old actor recalled his friendship with Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes and other actors during Wednesday's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
"We were all together. That was a huge community of us, you know. It wasn't just Denzel and Wesley," Jackson said.
"We all succeeded at a different pace," he added. "It's like Denzel, you know, left and did St. Elsewhere, and then he became a movie star. And then Wesley left and became this huge big action star for a while with [Sylvester] Stallone and all these other guys. And then the rest of us were toiling in New York doing theater, and then all of a sudden I did Jungle Fever and I entered Hollywood."
Jackson said other actors, such as Giancarlo Esposito and James Pickens, Jr., got their big break more recently.
"There were other actors that stayed around. And then we see now there are people like Giancarlo Esposito -- Giancarlo has always been this amazing actor, and we say to ourselves, 'When is that break going to happen for him?' And then he does Breaking Bad and Gus makes him this character -- now he's everywhere. Or friends like James Pickens, who's like the head of the hospital on [Grey's Anatomy]," he said.
Jackson said he and his old group of friends still support each other and celebrate each other's success.
"There's a lot of us that toiled and toiled, and it's really great to see people that you went to auditions with, you shared meals with, you pooled your money and bought food with because you're broke, succeed," the star said.
"Everything doesn't happen at the same time, but when they happen, they happen, and we're very happy to see that all of us are now doing things that people can look at us or people recognize us in different places and go, 'You're the guy from so-and-so,'" he added.
Jackson is known for such films as Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance and the Star Wars prequel trilogy. He plays Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Jackson will next star in The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, a sequel to The Hitman's Bodyguard. The film co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Selma Hayek and opens in theaters June 16.