Quentin Tarantino Has an Oddly Specific Gripe About Scarlett Johansson’s Oscar Nomination

Tarantino. Photo: John Phillips/Getty Images

Category fraud is everywhere at the Oscars this year, but is it a minor annoyance or the kind of emotional wound that sticks in your craw for a dozen years and never heals until you finally pour your pain out in the pages of a national magazine? Both, says Quentin Tarantino in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. While addressing the issue of whether Samuel L. Jackson deserved a lead nomination for Pulp Fiction (he was nominated in Supporting), Tarantino demurred, saying he cares about category fraud “only when it’s absolutely positively completely egregious.” Does he have an example? It’s Quentin Tarantino — you think he doesn’t have a f—ing example? “Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation — she’s obviously the co-lead,” Tarantino argued. “You see the movie through both of their eyes, so she’s not a supporting. That was obviously an attempt to get her nominated and I think it actually backfired.” Still, the director says he accepts that the problem of Scarlett Johannson’s proper Oscar category isn’t worth a can of beans in this crazy world: “With all the things to worry about in the world, they were just trying to get her a nomination so ultimately who f—ing cares?”

Tarantino: ScarJo Should Have a Best Actress Nom