Samuel L. Jackson believes he should have won an Oscar for his stellar performance in Quentin Tarantino’s classic 1994 film Pulp Fiction.
“I should have won,” the 73-year-old actor told The Times in an interview. Not only does Jackson believe he should have won the award for his role in that film, but went on to say that he deserved to at least get a nomination for his role in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. He noted that he was shocked to have been beaten out of a nom by two cast members from Bugsy.
“My wife and I went to see Bugsy,” he says. “Damn! They got nominated and I didn’t? I guess black folk usually win for doing despicable shit on screen. Like Denzel [Washington] for being a horrible cop in Training Day. All the great stuff he did in uplifting roles like Malcolm X? No — we’ll give it to this motherf***er. So maybe I should have won one. But Oscars don’t move the comma on your cheque — it’s about getting asses in seats and I’ve done a good job of doing that.”
Jackson is being awarded an Honorary Oscar at the 2022 Governors Awards on March 25. However, he believes that the metrics used to decide who wins and loses are also backwards. Jackson has appeared in some of the highest-grossing movies of all time, yet has never won an Oscar. The acting veteran says that there should be a category for “most popular movie” and that Spider-Man: No Way Home should win it this year because of how many people went out to see it.
“They should! It did what movies did forever — it got people to a big dark room,” he said, adding later, “All movies are valid. Some go to the cinema to be moved dearly. Some like superheroes. If somebody has more butts on seats it just means your audience is not as broad. There are people who have had successful careers but nobody can recite one line of their parts. I’m the guy who says shit that’s on a T-shirt.”
The 94th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 27.
