Samuel L. Jackson feels it’s time to drop the facade when it comes to awards season.
“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,” Jackson said in a video from the Associated Press. “It’s an honor to win.”
Jackson went on to say that most people forget Oscar-nominated performances, and even some winners. “You get nominated and folks go, ‘Yeah I remember that.’ Or most people forget,” he said with a chuckle. “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.”
Despite his celebrated and storied career, Jackson has only ever been nominated for an Oscar once — in 1995 for Pulp Fiction. He was presented an honorary Academy Award in 2021. Last summer, he told Vulture the prize “didn’t feel honorary” and that 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, but I’m fine with it. It’s mine. I got it. My name’s on it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, he named 1997’s Jackie Brown one of the movies he felt snubbed for.