Samuel L Jackson says it's not an honour to get an Oscar nomination: ‘Most people forget noms’

In a new interview, Samuel L Jackson shared that most people forget Oscar-nominated performances and even some winners.

Hollywood actor Samuel L Jackson, known for starring in Marvel films as Nick Fury, feels Oscar nominations are overrated, adding that the real honour is to win the award.

Samuel Jackson has only ever been nominated for an Oscar once — in 1995 for Pulp Fiction. (AFP)

What did he say

In a new interview with AP, Samuel revealed that he doesn’t believe that being nominated for an award is enough.

“We’ve been in the business long enough to know that when folks go, ‘It’s just an honour to be nominated.’ No it ain’t. It’s an honour to win,” Samuel said in a video from the Associated Press. He sat alongside Michael Potts while doing press for his film The Piano Lesson.

Samuel said that most people forget Oscar-nominated performances and even some winners. “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.’ They nominate you and people go, ‘What is that movie you’re nominated for? What’s the name of that thing?’ And after it’s over and people have a hard time remembering who even won.”

More about Samuel L Jackson

Despite his celebrated career, Samuel has only been nominated for an Oscar once — in 1995 for Pulp Fiction. He was presented with an honorary Academy Award in 2021. Last summer, he told Vulture the prize “didn’t feel honorary” and that it “just felt like I was getting an Oscar”. In 2022, he told The Times that he deserved to win the 1995 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor over Martin Landau (who won it for Ed Wood).

In an interview with Vulture last year, he shared that he was robbed of a second chance to win an Oscar when he didn’t even get nominated for Joel Schumacher’s 1996 legal drama, A Time to Kill.