When asked on “The View” this week about filmmakers slamming superhero movies (directors such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and more have criticized Marvel films for disrupting exhibition), Marvel Cinematic Universe stalwart Samuel L. Jackson said “it’s easy” for directors to do so “only because people aren’t going to see their movies.” Jackson has been a fixture of the MCU for almost 15 years as Nick Fury, a character he’s next bringing to television on the Disney Plus series “Secret Invasion.”
“Movies are movies,” Jackson said about directors criticizing Marvel films. “Those are the movies that I went to see when I was a kid. And the artistry of making a movie is something that was a mystery for so long. Making movies is no longer a mystery. Kids know how to do it on their phones. So it’s easy for [directors] to dismiss it, only because people aren’t going to see their movie.”
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“It’s like we’ve been dumbed down, but that’s always been the case,” Jackson added. “When we were younger, people went to see cowboy movies, and they went to see superhero movies of another ilk, they had superheroes on television. When you told a serious story, yeah, you find a niche audience — same thing still happens. People go to the movies to make themselves feel better and to get out of their daily existence.”
Jackson concluded that “people go into the big, darkroom to have a good time. It’s a shard good time. You laugh together and scream together. I still do movies that I would have gone to see when I was a kid.”
Speaking to The Times last month, Jackson argued that superhero movies deserve a better shot at the Oscars. Not only that, but he encouraged the Academy to “have an Oscar for the most popular movie. Because that’s what the business is about.”
“All movies are valid,” Jackson added. “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 shit that’s on a T-shirt.”
Jackson currently stars in the Apple TV Plus drama “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” which is now streaming.
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