Is it ‘just an honor to be nominated’ for an Oscar? ‘No it ain’t,’ says Samuel L. Jackson
"It's an honor to win," said Samuel L. Jackson, noting that most Oscar-nominated films and actors are forgotten past awards season.
Samuel L. Jackson has never been known to mince words, and the same holds true when discussing Hollywood’s biggest honor.
“We’ve been in the business long enough to know that when folks go, ‘It’s just an honor to be nominated [for an Oscar].’ No, it ain’t,” Jackson said during a video interview with the Associated Press as he and fellow actor Michael Potts promoted their current film, “The Piano Lesson.”
“It’s an honor to win,” he chuckled.
Of course, in spite of stellar performances, most nominees don’t win — after which, the so-called honor is then quickly forgotten, according to Jackson.
“You get nominated, and folks go, ‘Yeah I remember that.’ Or most people forget,” he explained. “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.’ 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.”
Since scoring a nomination in 1995 for his very memorable role in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” Jackson has become the highest-grossing actor in Hollywood as of 2024, yet he hasn’t been nominated since. In 2021, he was presented with an honorary Academy Award, an award he said “didn’t feel honorary” at all, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In fact, he said, it “just felt like I was getting an Oscar.”
“I earned it. I worked for it,” he continued. “I can possibly name four other instances where I could have won or should have won or should have been nominated, ” he added, referencing his role in Tarantino’s 1997 hit, “Jackie Brown” as an example. “[B]ut I’m fine with it. It’s mine. I got it. My name’s on it.”
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