LaTanya Richardson Jackson Reveals the ‘Pact’ She Has with Husband Samuel L. Jackson (Exclusive)

LaTanya Richardson Jackson is opening up about the “pact” she and husband Samuel L. Jackson made with each other.

LaTanya, 75, spoke to PEOPLE exclusively while attending the 2025 Tony Awards junket at Sofitel New York in N.Y.C. on Thursday, May 8. During the conversation, the actress shared that she and Samuel, 76, plan to keep working for as long as they possibly can — with the caveat that they’ll tell each other when “it’s time” to retire.

“My husband and I — Sam and I — both have said we’re going to do it till the wheels fall off. We both have … this pact between us that if we see ourselves doing more [than] we [should] be doing, we’ll pull each other in and say, ‘It’s time. Come in the house,’ and do it that way,” LaTanya says.

“We are just going to do this as long as life allows,” she adds.

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LaTanya — who was recently nominated for her second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in Broadway’s Purpose — also opened up about balancing work and family even in her 70s.

The actress and producer shared that she initially completely forgot to tell her husband about the Tony nom because she was in “mother” mode.

“My daughter [Zoe Jackson, 43] was trying to get Kendrick Lamar tickets,” LaTanya says, recalling the day the nominations were announced. “She called me, she said, ‘Dad’s not answering. Can you call him?’ I said, ‘He’s in London. Let me call [him].’ ” 

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The actress said she called Samuel to make sure he completed the task at hand and then hung up.

“Then he calls back later. He said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me you had gotten nominated for [a Tony]?’ … I said, ‘Because I’m a mother, and I was on the mother train, and I wasn’t thinking,’ “ she recalls.

“We are over the moon with that. We’re just happy,” the Broadway star adds.

The couple collaborates outside the home as well.

In addition to working together on several films and producing projects together, LaTanya directed Samuel in the 2022 Broadway revival of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, along with John David Washington and Ray Fisher.

“I’m amazed at how busy we are in our seventh decade,” she told PEOPLE in 2022. “I’m grateful because I think of all the things that could be.”