Samuel L. Jackson on Quentin Tarantino’s remarks that actors who appear in Marvel movies are eclipsed by the characters they play.
When questioned about Tarantino’s comments, Jackson responded on The View, “It takes an actor to portray those specific personalities. And did you know that the definition of movie fame has always included asses in chairs? What are we discussing?”
Tarantino and the actor previously collaborated on the films Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), and Django Unchained (2012). Jackson debuted as Nick Fury in Iron Man (2008), one of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Numerous movies since then, including Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man Far From Home, and The Marvels the following year, have featured him reprising his character.
So, for me, it’s not a great controversy to learn that, uh, these actors are movie stars, he said. Chadwick Boseman plays Black Panther, as you may know. That cannot be disputed. He is also a famous actor.
When Tarantino spoke on the podcast 2 Bears, 1 Cave, he said something provocative like, “Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is…you have all these actors who have gotten famous portraying these characters. They are not nevertheless movie stars. Right? The protagonist is Captain America. perhaps the star is Thor. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that, for sure. That’s been said probably a billion times. However, these franchise characters are the ones that get notoriety.
Simu Liu, a star of the film Shang-Chi, was one of the Marvel actors that disagreed with Tarantino’s evaluation.