Samuel L. Jackson has released a touching statement on the passing of Richard Roundtree. Roundtree, perhaps best known as “Johh Shaft” in the Shaft Franchise, died on October 24th at the age of 81. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer prior to his death and was surrounded by his family when he passed.

Roundtree starred as “John Shaft” in 5 different films, including the original in 1971. Samuel L. Jackson played the role of “John Shaft II” in the 2000 and 2019 reboots. Jackson starred alongside Roundtree in both films and the two became close friends while on set.

Hours after the news broke Jackson posted this heartfelt tribute to the late Roundtree on Instagram…

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Samuel L. Jackson Was Heavily Involved with the 2000 ‘Shaft’ Script

The 2000 version of Shaft was a bit controversial, to say the least. Samuel L. Jackson, who was vocal about his issues with the film at the time, had plenty of notes on the script for director Tim Story.

Story recalled in an interview with CNN that Jackson wasn’t quiet about his ideas.

“Yes, [Jackson offered] so much, what we did was sat down and read it through with Sam and Sam would say, ‘Hey what if I said this?’ and ‘What if I did this?’ I’m amazed that Sam had so many notes on the millennial angle,” Story recalled. “Sam just talks to so many people constantly that he just has all this information.”

“He came up with the whole, we have a scene at Jesse’s apartment, and he says what are you are you cisgender, are you this, are you that and he rattled off all these things that millennials call themselves, and that was him wanting to add all that in,” Story says. “What we also did, and this was on purpose, was to have that millennial in JJ always combat it.”