Samuel L. Jackson has a message for the Academy and it has nothing to do with the current drama surrounding the reformatted 94th Oscar TV show. Instead, Jackson wants Oscar voters to know that there must be an Oscar at this point in his career. Although Jackson won an honorary Oscar this year, he received only one Oscar nomination: Best Supporting Actor in 1995 for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Criminal Readings.
“I had to win this one,” Jackson told The Times recently about his Oscar nomination for Pulp Fiction. Jackson was nominated the same year against Martin Landau (“Ed Wood”), Chaz Palnteri (“Bullets Over Broadway”), Paul Scofield (“Quiz Show”) and Gary Sinise (“Forest Gump”). Landau was awarded an Oscar. Jackson said he missed another Oscar for “Jungle Fever”, for which he was not even nominated. Two members of the Bugsy cast stormed Jackson’s no-confidence contest that same year.
“My wife and I went to see the Bugs,” Jackson said. “Damn it! They were nominated and I wasn’t? I guess blacks usually win when they do nasty nonsense on screen. Like Denzel [Washington] for being a terrible cop on ‘Training Day’. All the great things you did in inspirational roles like Malcolm X? No, we’re going to give it to this bastard. So maybe I should have won one. But the Oscars don’t move the comma of your check – it’s about sitting on your ass and I did a good job with it. “
Jackson noted that the Oscars should pay more attention to films that get “butts in place.” The academy tried and failed to introduce a category for the most popular film in 2018, but Jackson fully supports the idea. The actor proposed that the highest grossing film of each year be awarded an Oscar.
“They have to have an Oscar for the most popular film. Because that’s what business is all about, “Jackson said, adding that the Oscars” should “award” Spider-Man: No Way Home “this year for $ 1.8 billion in revenue worldwide. “It did what the movies did forever – it took people to a big dark room.”
“All movies are valid,” Jackson said. “Some go to the movies to be touched dearly. Some like superheroes. If someone has more butts in place, it just means that your audience is not so wide. There are people who have made a successful career, but no one can recite a single line of their parts. I’m the one who says nonsense on a T-shirt. “
Jackson will receive his honorary Oscar at the 2022 Governor’s Awards on March 25, two days before the Oscars televised.