In an interview with AP Entertainment while promoting his role in Netflix’s ‘The Piano Lesson,’ Samuel L. Jackson revealed that Oscar nominations are not a big deal for him.
During his brilliant career, Jackson has only earned one Oscar nomination for ‘Pulp Fiction,‘ for Best Supporting Actor in 1995. Jackson was also awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2021.
“We’ve been in the business long enough to know that when folks go, ‘It’s just an honor to be nominated.’ No, it ain’t. It’s an honor to win,” Jackson said with a laugh. “You get nominated, and folks go, ‘Yeah, I remember that.’ Or most people forget. Generally, it’s a contest you didn’t volunteer to be in. I didn’t go in there so I could flex. ‘Let me do my scene, so you can remember who I was.’”
Jackson told the Times, “I was never going to let the Oscars be a measure of my success or failure as an actor.” He added, “My yardstick of success is my happiness: Am I satisfied with what I’m doing? I’m not doing statue-chasing movies. You know [whispers]: ‘If you do this movie, you’ll win an Oscar.’ No, thanks. I’d rather be Nick Fury. Or having fun being Mace Windu with a lightsaber in my hand.”
‘The Piano Lesson,’ Jackson’s latest movie, is now streaming on Netflix.
