Samuel L. Jackson recently gave his view on the Oscars process, and as well as pointing out that winning an Academy Award “don’t move the comma on your check,” he felt that maybe he should have been given some love by the Academy for playing Jules Winnfield in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Jackson has so far not managed to land himself an Oscar despite appearing in some of the biggest and most critically praised movies of a generation. Still, in 1995 he was nominated for his Pulp Fiction role but ultimately lost out to Martin Landau’s performance in Ed Wood.

Jackson has portrayed a variety of characters on screen, whether in drama, horror, comedy, or superhero genres, and one thing that it guarantees is that somewhere there is already a new set of T-Shirts with his face and latest quote being made. In Pulp Fiction, his character has many quotable and meme-filling lines, including his “Royale With Cheese” conversation with John Travolta’s Vincent Vega, and his iconic diner speech. When it comes to Oscar glory, Jackson feels that the awards selection process does need to change to acknowledge what the industry actually reflects. He told The Times:

“I guess Black folk usually win for doing despicable s**t on screen. Like Denzel [Washington] for being a horrible cop in ‘Training Day’. All the great stuff he did in uplifting roles like ‘Malcolm X’? No – we’ll give it to this motherf**ker ... So maybe I should have won one. But Oscars don’t move the comma on your cheque — it’s about getting a**es in seats and I’ve done a good job of doing that ... All movies are valid. Some go to the cinema to be moved dearly. Some like superheroes. If somebody has more butts on seats it just means your audience is not as broad. There are people who have had successful careers but nobody can recite one line of their parts. I’m the guy who says s**t that’s on a T-shirt ... They should have an Oscar for the most popular movie, because that’s what the business is about.”

Samuel L. Jackson is the Highest-Grossing Actor of All-Time in Box Office Numbers

Thanks to his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Samuel L. Jackson has topped up his box office takings considerably, having been involved in movies that have pulled in over $5.7 billion as of 2021. While a large chunk of this has come from his sometimes small roles in Avengers movies, there is no doubt that if you see Jackson’s name on a movie poster, it will pull in a big audience who know precisely the kind of performance they are going to get.

The diversity of awards ceremonies has been constantly brought into question over the decades. In many ways, Jackson is only mirroring comments from many others in the industry when it comes to Oscar movies versus popular movies, as usual, with exceptions; the two do not go hand in hand. Top-rated films from the likes of Marvel are often not even put up for considerations against serious dramas, despite usually having the same cast members, and the addition of a fan-nominated award this year has not helped matters by being turned into a fan opportunity to put movies up for the accolade for personal reasons rather than for the film being worthy.

However, as Jackson was happy to note, he is the guy who gets his lines immortalized on the front of shirts and other merchandise and is probably the source of some of the most quoted lines in modern cinema. That kind of thing is something Oscars just cannot buy.