As he prepares to receive an honorary Oscar, Samuel L. Jackson has pushed a rant once morest the ceremony. Believing that he should have been rewarded for “Pulp Fiction”, the comedian also pointed out that the Academy tends to ignore certain very popular films.
An honorary Oscar for a colossal career
Samuel L. Jackson is arguably one of the most prolific and eclectic American actors still in business. On the side of the big productions, the actor can boast of having wielded a lightsaber, of having seen dinosaurs up close, of having gathered the Avengers or even of having helped John McClane to prevent disasters in the streets of New York.
Of course, that’s not all. In addition to having filmed under the direction of Martin Scorsese (Freedmen), de M. Night Shyamalan (Incassable, Glass), de Tony Scott (True Romance) or Adam McKay (Very Bad Cops) to name a few, Samuel L. Jackson is Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee’s favorite actor. As she prepares to receive an honorary Oscar during the Governors Awards on March 25, the star confided in the Academy during an interview for The Times spotted by Premiere. She believes that she might have given him a statuette for his roles in two collaborations with the directors of Django Unchained and Do the Right Thing.
Misunderstanding Samuel L. Jackson
About his phenomenal portrayal of Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction, only feature film for which he was nominated, the actor first assured:
I should have won.
Samuel L. Jackson then quoted the addict Gator Purifybrother of the hero played by Wesley Snipes in Jungle Fever. A striking composition but which the Academy of the Oscars shunned in 1992, preferring in particular those of Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley in Bugsy. A decision that caused the incomprehension of the actor, who continued:
My wife and I went to see Bugsy. Slim ! They were named for that and not me? I guess black people usually win for doing despicable things on screen. Like Denzel (Washington) as a horrible cop in Training Day. All the great things he’s done in uplifting roles like Malcolm X ? No ? We’ll give it to him when he plays that motherfucker. So maybe I should have won one. But the Oscars don’t move the decimal on your check. It’s the number of asses you manage to move in the halls that makes your cachet and I did a good job of that.
A reward for Spider-Man : No Way Home ?
He then argued thatthere “should be an Oscar for the most popular film”and Spider-Man : No Way Home should be rewarded. The comedian concluded:
He did what films know how to do: bring people together in a big dark room… All films are valid. Some go to the movies to get emotional dearly. Some like superheroes. There are people who have had successful careers but no one can recite a single line from just one of their roles. Me, I’m the guy who says ‘shit’ and we put on t-shirts!
Statements that perfectly reflect the contrasting choices of the actor, as comfortable in snakes on the plane that in Black Snake Moan and The Dirty Eight.
