LaTanya Richardson Jackson Was Done With Acting. Then She Read the Script for Purpose

In January, LaTanya Richardson Jackson had her gallbladder removed. While she was lying in bed in California recovering, she got a phone call. It was from her longtime friend, Tony winner Phylicia Rashad—she was directing a new play, and it was going to Broadway. It’s called Purpose. Would Jackson star in it? Jackson’s initial reaction was a firm no. “I wasn’t going to be taking acting jobs. I want to direct,�� she recalled thinking. She had previously directed The Piano Lesson in 2022 on Broadway, starring her husband, Samuel L. Jackson.

But then, Jackson read Purpose, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins—the Tony-winning playwright of last season’s Appropriate.

“I start reading that script, and it was like, ‘Get me up out of this bed, and let’s get to New York!’�� she exclaims. Two weeks after her gallbladder surgery, Jackson flew across the country and began rehearsals for Purpose. And currently, every night at the Hayes Theater, she’s in Jacobs-Jenkins�� explosive family drama, where she plays Claudine Jasper, who with her husband, Solomon (played by Harry Lennix), was a leader in the Civil Rights movement. But now, older and retired, the couple must contend with their children not wanting to follow in their footsteps—grown children who may take paths in life their parents don’t approve of.

Purpose resonated with Jackson in a personal way. The 75-year-old legend began her career as a theatre actor, working with Joseph Papp’s Public Theater and Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre in the ��70s, creating art that she hoped would be tools during the Civil Rights movement for change. As she says of her husband, “We met during a revolution.��

Purpose aligns perfectly with Jackson’s values in its portrayal of a loving, yet complex Black family in a period of transition and change, exploring how one generation can hand the mantle of progress to the next. “We are in a radical movement, and this is our offering,�� says Jackson, with reverence. “This is our offering, and we are grateful to Branden for giving us this food to give out this offering. Because this is our protest.��

This is also a rare time in Jackson’s life when a role has been tailor made for her. “This is something that you don’t get to do or experience in life, but maybe a couple of times—and this is one of those times,�� she marvels. “It doesn’t get any better than this.��

One can say Jackson’s been overdue for this kind of attention. After her husband’s career took off in Hollywood in the ��80s, Jackson put her ambition aside to focus on raising their daughter, Zoe Dove. She took small parts here and there on the screen. But it wasn’t until the late aughts, when her daughter had grown up, that Jackson began focusing on herself again. She made her Broadway debut in 2009 at the age of 59 in August Wilson’s Joe Turner's Come and Gone. The next decade saw her starring in A Raisin in the Sun (where she earned her first Tony nomination) and To Kill a Mockingbird—the latter in the role of Calpurnia, which was expanded for the stage because Jackson frankly told director Bartlett Sher that she did not want to play a silent maid.

Harry Lennix and LaTanya Richardson Jackson Tricia Baron

Working with Jacobs-Jenkins for Purpose, Jackson has been similarly frank. In an explosive dinner scene in the first act, Solomon insults Claudine in front of their children, saying she has been “slacking�� in keeping their sons in line. In rehearsal, Jackson discussed with Jacobs-Jenkins what an “outlet�� for her character would look like. After all, as a powerful woman herself, Claudine should not tolerate that kind of disrespect. “We had asked questions from the beginning, about Claudine and how was she processing all of this without any outlet, without any opportunity to explode,�� explains Jackson. “That was my main concern with talking to Branden—about where that would occur, when it should occur.��

Jacobs-Jenkins then wrote Jackson an explosive rebuttal in the second act of the play, one that made clear that as a mother, Claudine's job had been to keep her sons alive in a world that wanted to harm them. “Picking up my slack," she says bitterly to Solomon, "You wouldn’t know where to begin!�� That line inspires applause from the audience nightly.

Taking apart that moment, Jackson is philosophical: “Men may have physical strength, but the impact of an emotional woman is worth much more weight than a man’s,�� she says, firmly. “Because we hold the world for real. We hold it up, and we hold everything that’s inside of it. We hold them.��

Now with Purpose, Jackson’s role is so pivotal and her performance so powerful, that she’s earned rave reviews, a portrait at Sardi’s, an award from Black Women on Broadway. Oh, and there's also her third Tony nomination, for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play. The production itself has received five Tony nominations, including Best Play, as well as the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

For once, the talk of the town is her, not her husband. Jackson is taking the attention with a dose of humility.

“I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, a dark-skinned colored girl, which was not necessarily who people were looking at,�� she explains. When pressed on whether she, even a little bit, is enjoying being the center of attention, she firmly shuts down the thought. “This is just a joyful spark. I never was focused on being a star. I watched my husband, and the people who I watched who were stars—it’s in their head that that’s who they are. And my purview has always been just too expansive for that.��

Indeed, besides acting, Jackson is also the vice chair of the board of the American Theatre Wing and the vice chair of the board at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Jackson also makes time to work with her local church. After Purpose closes July 6, Jackson will direct a play in Los Angeles at the Geffen Playhouse: Pearl Cleage's Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous. She plans to direct her friends Whoopi Goldberg and Rashad in a play; she's also been asked to direct at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Artistically, she wants to focus on stories of Black womanhood, of the unseen and unappreciated labor of Black women, and what women truly desire when no one is there to tell them what to want. It’s something that is touched on in Purpose, but Jackson wants to go further. "Something that is new, and something that's fresh, that we get to see women speak and really speak to an issue. There's still not enough new work about women, and there needs to be," she muses.

LaTanya Richardson Jackson Marc J. Franklin

In a follow-up conversation the morning she learned she was nominated for the Tony, Jackson was overjoyed and a bit mischievous, saying: "I want to be aggressive in the pursuit of this award. What do I have to do to bring this puppy home?" For this community beacon, who came from a blue-collared background, who had been content to uplift others—this is Jackson's time to shine, and you have to believe, she's making the most of it.

"For this to happen in my life right now, I am like, 'Oh my God, how did I get this blessing?' I am overwhelmed. I am overjoyed at the opportunity that it has presented for me. And for [Purpose] to be so sumptuously good is what any actor would hope for, the meat that is inside in it, that you get to chew and masticate on. This is what you dream about. This is what you hope for in a lifetime," she marveled. And after Purpose, is Jackson truly ready to be done with acting? Maybe. Never say never. "I could be done unless [Branden] writes something else," she laughs, loudly and joyfully. “The next one, I might need to be rolled out somewhere. I'll come, but can you put me in a chair?��