Sinead Butler
Nov 28, 2024
Cover Media / VideoElephant
Samuel L. Jackson didn't hold back in sharing his thoughts on being nominated for an Oscar.
The 75-year-old actor spoke to the Associated Press alongside his The Piano Lesson co-star Michael Potts, where he explained his opinion on this following all the Oscar buzz around the film.
Jackson was previously nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards in 1991 for his role as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction and in 2021, he received an honorary Academy Award.
“We’ve been in the business long enough to know that when folks go, ‘It’s just an honor to be nominated.’ No it ain’t. It’s an honor to win,” Jackson said as he chuckled.
“You get nominated and folks go, ‘Yeah I remember that.’ Or most people forget. Generally it’s a contest you didn’t volunteer to be in. I didn’t go in there so I could flex. ‘Let me do my scene, so you can remember who I was.'”
@apnewsentertainment After decades in Hollywood and growing Oscar buzz for his new film, "The Piano Lesson," Samuel L. Jackson shares his approach to award nominations. #samuelljackson #thepianolesson #oscars
He added: “They nominate you and people go, ‘What is that movie you’re nominated for? What’s the name of that thing?’ And after it’s over and people have a hard time remembering who even won."
It isn't the first time Jackson has spoken about his topic as he previously said in an interview with Vulture that he would’ve won an Oscar for his role in Joel Schumacher’s A Time To Kill but some of his scenes were cut from the final version.
"The things they took out kept me from getting an Oscar,” Jackson told the publication last year. “Really, motherf****ers? You just took that s*** from me?”
In 2022, Jackson shared with the LA Times how he doesn't use the Oscars to measure the success of his acting career.
“I was never going to let the Oscars be a measure of my success or failure as an actor,” he explained.
“My yardstick of success is my happiness: Am I satisfied with what I’m doing? I’m not doing statue-chasing movies. You know [whispers]: ‘If you do this movie, you’ll win an Oscar.’ No, thanks. I’d rather be Nick Fury. Or having fun being Mace Windu with a lightsaber in my hand.”
Elsewhere, Jackson's reaction to losing Tony award turned him into meme, and Jackson defended Brie Larson and slams 'incel dudes who hate strong women'.
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