Maybe it’s sad that an actor being honest should be such huge news, but the Samuel L. Jackson keeping-it-real  tour that started with him challenging a reporter to say “n**ger” instead of “the N-word” has been rolling on, and I can’t get enough of it. More recently, he told one interviewer that Lincoln had a crappy ending, and another that he deserved the Oscar for Pulp Fiction that he lost to Martin Landau (something he’s been saying for a long time, actually, because Sam Jackson doesn’t lie unless you pay him). In fact, if you watch the video of that year’s best supporting Oscar being presented (by a 12-year-old Anna Paquin), which I’ve included after the jump, you can see Sam Jackson say “sh*t” when Martin Landau’s name comes up. The man does not self-censor.

When I asked if he thought he should have won instead Jackson was refreshingly candid. “Yes I do. I really don’t know many people who can not only remember Ed Wood but remember what Martin Landau did in it,” he said but added he was told it was more of a life achievement kind of award. “You know they were saying ‘Martin’s been nominated a few times and you’re going to be around for a while. Don’t worry.’ I was thinking I didn’t know it was a thing where if you get nominated for a few times you automatically get one. I thought it was supposed to be about impact.” [Deadline]

Not that Martin Landau wasn’t great in Ed Wood (which I remember, just barely, and Gary Sinise was pretty damn good in Forrest Gump too), but Jackson is totally correct. Landau had been nominted in ’87 and ’89 without winning, and there are many cases of actors (especially in the best supporting actor category) who may not have turned in the best performance that year, but whom the academy rewards for being an older dude who’s always pretty good (anyone remember James Coburn in Affliction?). Rule goes double if the person dies before the ceremony.

Meanwhile, Jackson saved some haterade (is that racist?) for this year’s other slavery movie, the one with all the white people, Lincoln. (Spoilers follow, especially if you’re a moron).

I don’t understand why it didn’t just end when Lincoln is walking down the hall and the butler gives him his hat,” Jackson said to The Los Angeles Times. “Why did I need to see him dying on the bed? I have no idea what Spielberg was trying to do.”

“Lincoln” ends with the 16th president (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) being assassinated offscreen, and then returning via flashback to speak at his inauguration months earlier.

Continued Jackson, in what the Times called a “mini-rant”: “I didn’t need the assassination at all. Unless he’s going to show Lincoln getting his brains blown out. And even then, why am I watching it? The movie had a better ending 10 minutes before.” [HuffingtonPost]

Once again, I have to agree 100 percent here. I kept expecting the son to come back into play at the end somehow, to explain why we had to watch 20 minutes of him and his boring, hysterical mom having cheesy arguments about whether he’d go off to fight the war that was already over. But nope, we just got Hey Blinkin givin’ a speech, super imposed over a candle, to represent the enduring flame of democracy. Very subtle, Spielberg. Very subtle.

Watch at 1:14 for the reaction shot.

This is neither here nor there, but I found this Samuel L. Jackson dog on an unrelated Google Image Search a few weeks ago.