Samuel L. Jackson would “rather be Nick Fury” than chase an Oscar
The legendary actor received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar at the 94th Annual Academy Awards
Aux News Samuel L. Jackson
Keep your golden statues: Samuel L. Jackson has no regrets about turning down Oscar-bait roles in the name of passion projects. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor discussed his feelings on Hollywood’s big award after finally winning an honorary Oscar this year.
Jackson shared that he was a “little bit” surprised by how emotional he felt upon receiving a lifetime achievement trophy at the 94th Annual Academy Awards in March. Jackson’s longtime friend and collaborator Denzel Washington presented the award in a gleefully pure moment.
“As jaded as I wanted to be about it, you know thinking, ‘Well, I should have won an Oscar for this or should have won for that and it didn’t happen,’ once I got over it many years ago, it wasn’t a big deal for me,” Jackson shared.
He continued: “I was never going to let the Oscars be a measure of my success or failure as an actor. My yardstick of success is my happiness: Am I satisfied with what I’m doing? I’m not doing statue-chasing movies. You know: ‘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.”
When the L.A. Times asked Jackson if he regretted turning down any of those “statue-chasing” films, he was quick to offer a resounding “no.”
“I want to do the stuff that made me want to go to the movies when I was a kid. I want to do that movie that people just want to see so they can get out of themselves,” Jackson said. “That’s the guy I chose to be and I’m fine with it. I’m satisfied because that’s who I am. I’m the guy who does the lines that people see on T-shirts. There’s actors who go their whole careers and no one can quote a line they’ve said in a movie. People go to watch my movies to see how crazy I’m going to be or see how many times I say motherfucker.” He laughed before continuing: “Whatever gets them in the seats.”
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One might say that he is too old for this shit.
Wrong guy.Unless this is a Loaded Weapon reference.
Or when he was the kid on the river patrol boat in Apocalypse Now.
Dude, that’s Larry Fishburne….Or is that the joke? Shit, did I miss the joke? I’m too old for this shit….
I still get a kick out of his role in Coming to America. It had to be a hoot to be an unknown actor and get a role swinging a shotgun around, cursing up a storm, and then getting to say “fuck you” to Eddie Murphy. Seems like a good time.
Love the guy, but his demonstrated range (thus far) has been pretty narrow. He’s been Jules Winnfield in just about every role I’ve seen him in. Mothman excepted.
his demonstrated range (thus far) has been pretty narrow
I think he has great range but, like Fishburne since playing Morpheus, he just generally seems to have settled into playing one character.
I feel like he HAS the range, but he isn’t that interested in exploring it. There’s a (poorly received) HBO teleplay called Sunset Limited where he and Tommy Lee Jones sit in a room and argue about God and the meaning of life, and SLJ nails a pretty wide range of emotions/characterizations IMO. But I think for most projects, the guy has his zone he’s comfortable in (and that people, myself included, like) and sticks with it.
Don’t make Ptolemy Grey cry.
He should have won an Oscar for Django Unchained.
Or having fun being Mace Windu with a lightsaber in my hand.Not sure Windu is having fun at this point, but I guess the lightsaber is still in his hand.
Well, he said that he had fun playing Mace Windu, he didn’t say anything about whether Mace Windu was having fun.
Hey, if Darth Maul can come back with robot legs or whatever…
Heart of Darkness style Mace is a crazy underworld Courstcant slumlord with one hand and Boba Fett and/or Vader or everyone has to go take him out. I’m looking forward to the Secret Invasion MCU show definitely but c’mon, Mace can still be around. Hate always keeps the dark siders alive, I’m sure the lightsiders can survive in non-Force Ghost methods.
The choice isn’t between Marvel and Oscar bait. Superhero stuff is totally mainstream and doesn’t stop people from doing oscar bait in their free time. He wants to do Marvel and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard over oscar bait. Which is also an acceptable choice, but I guess he knows how silly it sounds to say I’d rather do the Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.
I hope Samuel L Jackson will at least get an Emmy nod for his work in The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey. He was excellent in that.
How would you feel about being “Nick Fury chasing an Oscar”?
I was just going to say, two people have won the Oscar for playing the Joker. It’s not always an either/or.
It mostly is.
Kind of insane that neither one of those people was Jack Nicholson…
He should get his face on the dollar bill for that performance.
Jack got all the best lines in Batman, was completely over the top, and 13 year old Rogue loved it. Batman 1989 was the first movie I ever saw three times in the cinema (the second time with my grandmother, and I still remember looking at her when he uttered the S.O.B. line and…no reaction). Nicholson deserved at least a nod from the Academy for that role, because he encompassed it so thoroughly, playing to both the lunacy but also the pathos of who and what the Joker was up to that point.
He has had it with these motherfucking prestige pictures on his motherfucking filmography!
I feel like he HAS the range, but he isn’t that interested in exploring it. There’s a (poorly received) HBO teleplay called Sunset Limited where he and Tommy Lee Jones sit in a room and argue about God and the meaning of life, and SLJ nails a pretty wide range of emotions/characterizations IMO. But I think for most projects, the guy has his zone he’s comfortable in (and that people, myself included, like) and sticks with it.
When will Disney+ make a Mace Windu show?
After my son found out that Carrie Fisher and Alec Guiness were dead, he got very interested in which members of the Star Wars cast are alive. When I reassured him that Samuel L Jackson is very much alive, he immediately asked, “So why doesn’t he have a force ghost or show up in any of the other movies?” Amen, kid. Watching the prequels with a 6-year-old makes them much more enjoyable, but I can’t deny one thing – George Lucas cast Samuel L Jackson and gave him nothing to fucking do until the third movie. Seriously, you have Mace Windu in the frame, and Ki-Adi-Mundi gets the dialog? Fuck that.
George Lucas cast Samuel L Jackson and gave him nothing to fucking do until the third movie.I mean he does decapitate Jango Fett in the second movie. I know he doesn’t have a prominent role but it’s not nothing.Also if your son likes cartoons – Clone Wars is great and Mace has arcs in that show.
That’s right. Well that counts for something. My son doesn’t want to watch the Clone Wars show because he thinks the live action movies are cooler and more sophisticated. He’s 6, he’ll come around.
What? Star Wars Rebels was for kids, and I’m close to retirement age, and watched it all with my pre-teen back then. It’s even better than The Clone Wars.
Gonna throw my hat in and bring up the older Clone Wars miniseries, which a) was better and b) also had some great Mace Windu moments.
I liked Genndy’s Clone Wars – dunno if it really was better overall or not. The more recent Clone Wars starts out a bit rougher but by S3 / S4 becomes really, really good. The way they create mini-arcs of 4 episodes made for a lot of mini movies and they really embraced some of the weirder and more different aspects of the SW universe.
The Filoni cartoons had highs and lows, but also recurring flaws that Tartakovsky’s show didn’t have. It was way more consistent imo (which tbf is easy when it’s only 2h long :P)
I remember back when Snakes on a Plane came out, I saw a Samuel L. Jackson interview where he said he did the film only because he would have loved it as a kid, but also insisted they keep the name of the film “Snakes on a Plane”. So motherfucking genuine this guy.
Not to throw shade at Leo but “The Revenant” did seem like a statue-chasing film.