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Samuel L. Jackson is weighing in on Quentin Tarantino‘s opinion that Marvel actors are “not movie stars.”
On Tuesday, Jackson, 73, appeared on The View alongside his wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson to discuss the Broadway revival of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, which LaTanya directed and in which Samuel stars.
During the interview, Samuel was asked for his take on the debate regarding frequent collaborator Tarantino, who recently said on the “2 Bears, 1 Cave” podcast that movie stars have disappeared due to the “Marvel-ization of Hollywood.”
“It takes an actor to be those particular characters, and the sign of movie stardom has always been, what, asses in seats?” Samuel said during his appearance. “What are we talking about?”
Samuel, who plays Marvel character Nick Fury in the MCU and has also starred in several of Tarantino’s movies, referenced the late Chadwick Boseman as a definitive “movie star” from the Marvel era.
RELATED: Simu Liu Responds After Quentin Tarantino Says Marvel Actors Are ‘Not Movie Stars’
“That’s not a big controversy for me to know that apparently these actors are movie stars,” he said on The View. “Chadwick Boseman is Black Panther. You can’t refute that, and he’s a movie star.”
Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Last Tuesday, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu shared his thought that the era of movie-stardom “was white as hell” in response to Tarantino’s comments.
“If the only gatekeepers to movie stardom came from Tarantino and Scorsese, I would never have had the opportunity to lead a $400 million plus movie,” Liu wrote in a Twitter post, also referencing director Martin Scorsese‘s now-famous 2019 comment that Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are “not cinema.”
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“I am in awe of their filmmaking genius. They are transcendent auteurs,” Liu wrote on Twitter, adding that auteur directors like Tarantino “don’t get to point their nose at me or anyone.”
If the only gatekeepers to movie stardom came from Tarantino and Scorsese, I would never have had the opportunity to lead a $400 million plus movie.
I am in awe of their filmmaking genius. They are transcendent auteurs. But they don’t get to point their nose at me or anyone.
— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) November 22, 2022
“No movie studio is or ever will be perfect,” Liu, who is expected to reprise his role as Shang-Chi in at least two upcoming MCU films, wrote on Twitter. “But I’m proud to work with one that has made sustained efforts to improve diversity onscreen by creating heroes that empower and inspire people of all communities everywhere.”
RELATED: Samuel L. Jackson Reunites with Pulp Fiction Costar Uma Thurman Backstage at Piano Lesson Play
Liu finished his post with a simple point about how times have changed in Hollywood.
“I loved the “Golden Age” too.. but it was white as hell,” he wrote on Twitter.
In Tarantino’s recent podcast appearance, he told host Tom Segura that his “only ax to grind against [Marvel] is they’re the only things that seem to be made,” and said that superhero movies “are the entire representation of this era of movies right now.”
