For most actors, it’s just an honor to be nominated, but Samuel L. Jackson isn’t most actors.
Jackson has starred in some of the most iconic films of all time, including “Goodfellas” (1990), “Jurassic Park” (1993) and “Pulp Fiction” (1994), and has earned critical acclaim for his performances across the decades, but has only been nominated for an Oscar once.
While promoting his latest film on Tuesday, the veteran actor candidly addressed the topic.
“We’ve been in the business long enough to know that folks who go, ‘Well, it’s just an honor to be nominated’ — no, it ain’t,” Jackson told The Associated Press, prompting Michael Potts, his costar in “The Piano Lesson” who was sitting beside him, to laugh heartily.
“It’s an honor to win!” Jackson continued. “You get nominated, folks go, ‘Yeah, yeah, I remember that.’ Or most people forget. And generally, it’s a contest you didn’t volunteer to be in. I didn’t go in there so I could flex, like, ’Wait a minute, let me do my scene!”
Jackson has been acting since the 1970s, has starred in more than 150 films, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000.
His one Oscar nomination came in 1995 for his performance as hitman Jules Winnfield in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” — but Martin Landau took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar that year for his turn as Bela Lugosi in “Ed Wood.”
“They nominate you, and folks go, ‘What is that movie they’re nominated for? What’s the name of that thing?’” Jackson said Tuesday. “And then, after it’s over, people have a hard time remembering who even won.”
Fans of Jackson on social media acknowledged that the Academy Awards don’t necessarily reward the most deserving actors, but Jackson has won trophies elsewhere, including from the BAFTAs and the Cannes Film Festival.
His casting in major franchises over the decades, meanwhile, which include “Star Wars,” Marvel and animated Pixar films, earned Jackson a Guinness World Record in 2023 as the actor with the most films topping $100 million at the worldwide box office.
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In 2021, he even received an honorary Oscar — which Jackson said “didn’t feel honorary.”
“I earned it,” he told Vulture in 2023. “I worked for it. 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.”