The Oscars may be about celebrating the last year in film, but the 2022 Academy Awards found time for a little nostalgia by reuniting Pulp Fiction stars Samuel L Jackson, John Travolta and Uma Thurman to present an award.
The trio came on to give out the award to Best Actor, and in their introduction they included many of the iconic lines that film fans have been reciting for the last three decades.
Jackson began by saying: “Some actors stay in character through an entire shoot. And well, they just never let it go.” All the while, Thurman and Travolta reenacted their famous dance scene from Quentin Tarantino’s film.
Thurman referenced a “$5 milkshake,” while Travolta quoted the “Royale with Cheese” monologue from the movie.
At the end of the speech, Jackson said they would finally reveal what was in the movie’s famous glowing suitcase, only to pull out the envelope for Best Actor from the case.
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This reunion comes 28 years after the film’s first release in 1994. All three were nominated for acting Oscars in the 1995 ceremony, but none won. In fact, of the seven nominations the film was nominated for, only Quentin Tarantino took home an Oscar for his screenplay.
Jackson’s appearance on the Oscars stage comes a few days after the Academy gave him a lifetime achievement award. It also comes just a few weeks after he attacked the Academy for awarding Best Supporting Actor not to him but to Martin Landau in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood.
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In a Times interview, he said: “I should’ve won that one.” He then went on to attack the voting body for not nominating him for his role in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, and for nominating Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley in Bugsy that same year.
The acting legend, whose only Oscar nomination was for Pulp Fiction, said: “My wife and I went to see Bugsy. Damn! They got nominated and I didn’t? I guess black folk usually win for doing despicable shit on screen.”
None of this, however, prevented the Academy from awarding the 73-year-old actor a lifetime achievement award during their Governors Awards. After receiving the award, presented to him by Denzel Washington, the actor said: “I’m really, really proud to receive this statuette. This thing is going to be cherished…Thanks to every person who has ever bought a ticket to any movie I was in.”
Travolta’s best known Oscars moment, meanwhile, was a famous gaffe. In 2014, he briefly became a social media punching bag after mispronouncing singer Idina Menzel’s name as “Adele Dazeem.”
In a Jimmy Kimmel interview, Travolta joked that he was too distracted by actor Goldie Hawn’s good looks to do the introduction properly. The Oscar nominee said: “As I ran backstage, I ran into Goldie Hawn. Now, Goldie Hawn is charismatic, sexy, beautiful… and I was starstruck! And they said, ‘You’re on’.”
Film fans celebrated the Pulp Fiction reunion on Twitter – even when the moment was instantly overshadowed by Will Smith’s tear-soaked acceptance speech that seemed to reference his attack on Chris Rock.
One Oscars viewers referenced Kodi Smit McPhee’s visibly delighted reaction to the reunion, writing: “Kodi letting out the biggest smile at the Pulp Fiction crew coming onstage…me too tbh.”
Others wondered why the 28th anniversary of Pulp Fiction was celebrated alongside the 50th anniversary of The Godfather and the 30th anniversary of White Men Can’t Jump. They wrote: “Man I’m glad the #Oscars pretaped a bunch of awards so they had time to show the 28th anniversary of Pulp Fiction which is a totally normal anniversary to celebrate.”
Others referenced the shocking moment that was on every viewer’s mind. They wrote: “After 28 years we finally found out the briefcase in Pulp Fiction was the best actor award for Will Smith minutes after he just assaulted someone on national television.
“I am never going to miss the Oscars, ever.”
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism