How to Get Samuel L. Jackson’s Voice on Amazon Echo Devices

The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes

Update: As of April 2023, Amazon has announced it is discontinuing celebrity voices on Alexa. If you purchased a celebrity voice on Alexa, you may be able to get a refund by requesting one from Amazon.  Pocket Lint explains how to request a refund: Amazon ends Alexa celebrity voices: How to get a refund on voices you bought.

Note that if you used digital credits to buy a celebrity voice, you will not be entitled to a refund, according to Amazon’s policy.

If you enjoy talking to Alexa on your Amazon Echo devices, you might want to meet her new best friend, Samuel L. Jackson. Yes, Mr. Jackson is not only a movie star, he can be a star in your home through your Amazon Echo devices.

Amazon has introduced a skill for Alexa that lets you ask questions to your Echo device and have Samuel L. Jackson respond instead of Alexa. Mr. Jackson answers in his own voice and has different responses from Alexa’s, if you ask a personal question about him.

Unlike most other Alexa skills, Samuel L. Jackson’s voice skill isn’t free. But below I’ll explain how you may be able to get it for free.

This video shows the fun you can have by adding Samuel L. Jackson’s voice to your Echo devices:

How to Get Samuel L. Jackson’s Alexa Voice Skill

You can get Samuel L. Jackson’s voice on your Alexa device by asking Alexa, “Introduce me to Samuel L. Jackson.” Alexa will explain what Mr. Jackson can do and then ask you if you’d like to purchase the skill.

Or, you can go to the Samuel L. Jackson Alexa skill page at Amazon’s website to purchase the skill.

How to Get Samuel L. Jackson’s Alexa Voice Skill for Free

Samuel L. Jackson’s Alexa Voice Skill is currently $0.99, but when Amazon initially offered the skill it said the price of $0.99 was an introductory price. Amazon indicated that the price of this skill would eventually rise to $4.99, though it didn’t say when.

The Samuel L. Jackson’s Alexa Voice Skill page at Amazon no longer says that the price will increase later, but that doesn’t mean it won’t.

The good news is that you may be able to get this skill for free, if you’re an Amazon Prime member.

When you order something using Amazon Prime, you’re usually given the option of a later delivery date in exchange for a $1 credit towards a digital purchase. So by delaying a Prime delivery to a later date (do you really need your Prime purchase in just one or two days?), you can get a digital credit you can use to purchase the Samuel L. Jackson Skill without spending any of your hard-earned money.

Using the Samuel L. Jackson Alexa Voice Skill

After you’ve purchased and enabled the Samuel L. Jackson Alexa voice skill, you use it by asking Alexa to ask Sam something. Unfortunately, Mr. Jackson’s voice isn’t a seamless replacement for Alexa’s voice, Alexa still serves as a go-between to ask Mr. Jackson the questions.

To use this skill, say something like, “Alexa, ask Sam what the weather is today.” Samuel L. Jackson will respond. Sometimes he makes funny comments you wouldn’t hear from Alexa, other times he just gives a plain response.

You can ask him personal questions, such as what his favorite color is or whether he has a pet, and his responses will be different from Alexa’s. Other times, when you ask for search results or the answer to math problems, he gives the same response Alexa would give.

One fun question to ask Mr. Jackson is “What town has the longest name in the world?” and listen to him pronounce it.

What Else You Need to Know About Samuel L. Jackson Alexa Voice Skill

U.S. English Only

The Samuel L. Jackson Alexa voice skill is currently only available for Echo devices that are set to U.S. English. Sorry, Samuel L. Jackson doesn’t seem to be fluent in other languages.

Clean vs. Explicit

This skill offers two options for Mr. Jackson’s voice: clean or explicit. If you’ve ever seen Mr. Jackson in a movie, you may have noticed his language can be, well, a bit salty.

Using the Alexa app, you can control whether Mr. Jackson speaks in a way that uses clean language or uses profanity. In the Alexa app, go to Settings => Voice Responses => Celebrity => Explicit Content.

You can slide the button to On if you prefer to hear Mr. Jackson’s language that isn’t suitable for tender ears.

You Must Say, “Alexa, Ask Sam”

You must say, “Alexa, ask Sam” for every question if you want to get the response from Mr. Jackson. This extra step may get old quickly and may get confusing if you have a person named Sam in your home.

I’m hoping that an update to this skill would allow Samuel L. Jackson to replace Alexa as the default voice so you can skip that extra step of asking Alexa to ask Sam a question. My first  GPS offered John Cleese’s voice to say directions, which was always a delight, and Waze currently offers some celebrity voices.

Amazon may offer that update some day, perhaps when the price of this skill rises to $4.99 in order to justify the price increase.

What Mr. Jackson Can’t Do

Unfortunately, Mr. Jackson can’t do everything that Alexa does, he has limitations. He can do many things, but he can’t help you with shopping, lists, reminders or other Alexa Skills.

Perhaps those limitations are the reason for the extra step of having to ask Alexa to ask Sam.

Your Thoughts

Do you like the idea of having celebrity voices for Alexa? Would you delay a Prime shipment so you can get the Samuel L. Jackson Alexa voice skill for free? What do you like to ask Samuel L. Jackson?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!