Samuel L. Jackson Doesn’t Think It’s ‘an Honor’ to Just Receive an Oscar Nomination: ‘It’s an Honor to Win’ 

For Samuel L. Jackson, there is no honor in losing.

Jackson, 75, stated that he thinks Academy Award nominations do not mean much in Hollywood, while recently speaking with The Associated Press.

“We’ve been in the business long enough to know that folks who go, ‘Well, it’s just an honor to be nominated,’ no it ain’t. It’s an honor to win,” Jackson said in a video the AP shared on X, causing his The Piano Lesson costar Michael Potts, 62, to laugh. “You know, you get nominated, folks go ‘Yeah, I remember that,’ or most people forget.”

“They only remember the winner,” Potts added. 

Despite Jackson’s status as one of the film industry’s most prolific and beloved actors over the last 40 years, the actor has only received one competitive Oscar nomination. In 1995, he was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for playing the hitman Jules in 1994’s Pulp Fiction. Martin Landau ultimately won that year’s award for his performance in Ed Wood.

“And generally it’s a contest you didn’t volunteer to be in, you know,” Jackson told the AP of awards races. “I didn’t go in there so I could flex like, ‘Wait a minute, let me do my scene then! Hold up! Make sure you remember who I was!’ ”

“They nominate you and folks go, ‘What is that movie they nominated for? What is the name of that thing?’ And then after it’s over, people have a hard time remembering who even won,” he added.

While Jackson has not been nominated for an Oscar since, he did receive an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement at the 2022 Governors Awards, which his longtime friend Denzel Washington presented to him at that ceremony. 

“I got out there to entertain audiences the way Hollywood entertained me. Make them forget their lives for a few hours and be thrilled, awed, or excited at the big room where make believe lives,” he said in an acceptance speech at the time. “Thanks to every person who has ever bought a ticket to any movie I was in. It’s truly been an honor and a pleasure to entertain you.” 

The Piano Lesson, in which Jackson collaborated with Denzel, 69, and his sons John David Washington and Malcolm Washington, is streaming on Netflix now.