Samuel L. Jackson Would Rather Be Nick Fury Than Chase Oscars

Samuel L. Jackson was never going to let the Oscar chase run his life, but he's happier now playing the world's greatest spy, Nick Fury, for Marvel Studios, the actor said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Jackson has never won an Oscar, but he took home an Academy Honorary Award this year--awards handed out at the Academy's own discretion, and not by a vote the way the Oscars are.

"As jaded as I wanted to be about [not winning an Oscar], you know thinking 'Well I should have won an Oscar for this or should have one for that and it didn't happen,' once I got over it many years ago, it wasn't a big deal for me," Jackson said. "I always have fun going to the Oscars. I always look forward to getting a gift basket for being a presenter. I give stuff to my relatives; my daughter and my wife would take stuff out."

"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."

Asked if he regretted passing on any of those "statue-chasing movies," Jackson said that he wanted "to do the stuff that made me want to go to movies when I was a kid."

"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 many times I say motherf****r."

Jackson most recently appeared in The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey and Marvel Studios' What If...?. He'll appear as Nick Fury next in the Disney+ series Secret Invasion later this year, followed by the Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels, in 2023.