Samuel L. Jackson: “When folks go ‘It’s just an honor to be nominated’ – no it ain’t”

Samuel L. Jackson is currently promoting The Piano Lesson, which streams on Netflix. It’s another adaptation of an August Wilson play, and John David Washington directed it and co-wrote the adapted screenplay. Sam is currently 75 years old (man, he’s ageing well) and as always, he works so consistently. Sam and Nicole Kidman work like they’re paying off gambling debts. But I digress! While Sam received an honorary Oscar in 2021, he’s only received one Oscar nomination for an actual acting role – Pulp Fiction, back in the 1990s. Well, Sam is here to tell everyone that, actually, it’s not an honor just to be nominated.

Samuel L Jackson said in a video interview with AP Entertainment, while promoting his role in Netflix’s “The Piano Lesson,” that Oscar nominations aren’t too big of a deal for him. Shockingly, Jackson has only earned one Oscar nomination during his illustrious career — for “Pulp Fiction,” which he landed a best supporting actor nod for in 1995. Jackson was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2021.

“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 with a laugh. “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.’”

“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,” Jackson added.

[From Variety]

First of all, maybe I’m an old fart now (#facts) but back in the day, Oscar nominations really did mean a lot more, and so did the Oscars. Back in the day, people did know and remember who won and who was nominated. But these days – and it’s been this way for years now – I do think all of it has just declined in significance and importance overall. People genuinely don’t remember who was nominated for what, and they barely remember the winners. Like, Gary Oldman won a Best Actor Oscar for wearing a fatsuit and prosthetics to play an extremely drunk Winston Churchill. Rami Malek won for those teeth. I totally forgot that Eddie Redmayne won for The Theory of Everything! Anthony Hopkins won and they didn’t even let him speak because they thought it would go to Chadwick Boseman! The past ten years have been messy as hell.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.