Now that Django Unchained has finally been unleashed in theaters many of you have been able to experience what all the hype was about. Some of you may have some questions, others may want to hear stories about the topic of the film, production and there are those who would love to listen to all star filmmakers talk shop and learn their ways. Two weeks back, Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Don Johnson, Walton Goggins and Jonah Hill participated in a press conference in NYC to promote the film and the below is the result of the 40 minute long Q & A session.
I’ve pulled some select quotes which you’ll find below the video that tell you a little about the project, what it’s like playing the villains and life on the set, particularly when blood was spilled by one of the leads. Though it’s definitely worth watching the entire video as there are some really great moments and some very funny jokes that get told throughout, especially from the mouth of Samuel L. Jackson.
You’ve talked about wanting to make a Western but it is impossible to watch this movie without thinking about how slavery as a subject has been largely absent from Hollywood cinema in the roughly 100 years since, Birth of a Nation. What sense of responsibility did you have in terms of making a movie that brings slavery out, front and center like this?
Tarantino: Well I always wanted to make a movie that deals with America’s horrific past with slavery, but the way I wanted to deal with it is as opposed to doing it as a huge historical movie with a capital H—I thought it could be better if it was wrapped up in genre. It seems to me that so many Westerns that actually take place during slavery times have just bent over backwards to avoid it, as is America’s way. It’s actually kind of interesting because most other countries have been forced to deal with the atrocities they’ve committed, actually the world has made them deal with the atrocities they’ve committed, but it’s kind of everybody’s fault here in America—white or black, nobody wants to deal with it, nobody wants to stare at it. I think, in the story of all the different types of slave narratives that could have existed in this 245 years of slavery in America, there are a zillion stories, a zillion dramatic, exciting, adventurous, heart-breaking, triumphant stories that could be told, and living in a world now where people say there are no new stories—there’s a whole bunch of them, and they’re all American stories that could be told; so I wanted to be one of the first ones out of the gate with it.
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I want to talk about the psychology of this character that is to me, maybe the most interesting character in the film. The relationship that he has to Calvin Candie, but also to the other slaves, and the small power he’s holding onto…
Samuel L Jackson: Small power!? I’m the power behind the throne. I’m like the spook-Chaney of Candieland. [Laughter] Yeah, I’m all up in that. To tell this story you have to have that character, specifically in that type of setting. I got the script from Quentin, he called me and told me he wrote a Western and he wanted me to read Stephen, and I complained about being 15 years too old to play Django. When I read the script I called him back and said, “So, you want me to be the most despicable Negro in cinematic history?” We both kind of laughed together and said. “Yeah! Let’s get on that.” Not only was that a great artistic opportunity to create something that was iconic, and to take what people know as Uncle Tom and turn it on its head in a powerful way; it also gave me the opportunity to do some really nasty shit to the person who got the role I should have had. [Laugher]
Tarantino: Payback’s a bitch.
Samuel L Jackson: Yeah, it is. It was written beautifully that way, so I could do that. To tell this story, you’ve got to have that guy. Stephen is the freest slave in the history of cinema. He has all the powers of the master and literally is the master in the times when Calvin is off Mandingo fighting; he makes the plantation run. Everyone on that plantation knows him everyone on that plantation fears him. He has a feeble persona that makes people disregard him in an interesting way, even though they fear him. They think he’s physically unable to keep up and do other things, but he’s around. We used to refer to him as the Basil Rathbone of the Antebellum South, and that’s what we tried to do. I wanted to play him honestly, and I wanted everybody to understand that when Django shows up; that’s a Negro we’ve never seen before. Not only is he on a horse, he got a gun, and he speaks out. The first thing I have to do is let all the other Negros on the plantation know—that’s not something you can aspire to, so let me put him in his place as quickly as I possibly can. You gotta correct that and them know, “You’re in the place you’re gonna be, and there’s no other place you can be. This nigger’s an anomaly, so don’t even think about trying to be that.” I whole heartedly embraced that.
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Directed towards Leonardo DiCaprio:
I understand in the scene where you had to break a glass, you actually broke that glass?
Jamie Foxx: Man that was crazy. He didn’t see what was going on. We were doing a diner table scene, and that whole day people were coming up from the offices wanting to see Leo doing the scene. He and Sam were just going to work, it was amazing. What happened was, the shot glass somehow slide over what he was always slamming his hand down on. In one take, he slams his hand down and the shot glass goes through his hand. Now blood is shooting out of his hand and I’m thinking, “Does everybody else see this?” This is crazy, and he keeps going. I almost turned into a girl just looking at it. What was amazing was that he was so into his character that even when they finally said cut, he was still this guy. I think people were ready to give him a mini standing ovation at the time. It was amazing to see that and amazing to see the process from my end, of these two guys making it real. At one point, we were in rehearsals, and Leo is saying his lines—nigger this and nigger that—and he was like, “Buddy, this is tough.” Then Sam pulls him to the said, and I’m paraphrasing, but Sam pulls him to the side and said, “Hey mother fucker, this is just another Tuesday for us, let’s go.” [Uproarious laughter]
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