Samuel L. Jackson is the highest-grossing actor in Hollywood history and one of its most prolific. Therefore, it seems strange to him that he has never won an Academy Award.
Jackson believes that he should have won an Oscar for his riveting, transcendent portrayal of hitman Jules Winnfield in the classic crime drama Pulp Fiction. And the 73-year-old thinks he should have at least gotten an Oscar nod playing a crackhead in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever.
“I should have won,” Jackson told the British newspaper The Times about Pulp Fiction.
“My wife and I went to see Bugsy,” he says. “D—! They got nominated and I didn’t? I guess Black folk usually win for doing despicable s— 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—-r. So maybe I should have won one. But Oscars don’t move the comma on your check — it’s about getting a–es in seats and I’ve done a good job of doing that.”
Jackson will be given a consolation prize of sorts when he’s bestowed an Honorary Oscar at the 2022 Governors Awards on March 25.
But the famously blunt actor says the metrics to decide Academy Award nominations and wins are backward. He also said there should be an Oscar category for the most popular movies of the year.
“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,” he said.
