If Django Unchained is expected to be controversial, it wasn’t evident during the latest press junket. An array of media members gathered in The Ritz hotel in New York City for Quentin Tarantino’s Spaghetti Western starring Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson. Set in pre-Civil War America, Django (played by Foxx) tells the story of a freed slave’s journey to rescue his wife, “Broomhilda” (Washington) from “Calvin Candie” – a Mississippi plantation owner (DiCaprio) with a jones for “Mandingo wrestling.” Weighty subject matter aside, on this day the laughter kept flowing.
“I wasn’t [initially] asked to play [‘Django’],” said Jamie Foxx describing his first impression of the role. “I actually saw the movie was already [in production] and someone else was supposed to play it. I thought, ‘Wow, here’s another project that I hadn’t heard about.’ After that, I had a management change.” Foxx also explained that since he grew up in Terrell, Texas, he wasn’t phased by the film’s gratuitous use of the n-word:
“I love the South. There are racial components in the South. You get called nigger growing up as a kid. When I read the script, I didn’t knee-jerk to the word ‘nigger’ like someone from New York or [Los Angeles] would knee jerk because that was something I experienced. What I did gravitate to was the love story of ‘Django’ and ‘Broomhilda.’ We never get a chance to see the slave actually fight back. When we started to shoot the film, we started to comment that these are the things that you get to see for the first time. For me, it was about the work and we knew coming into it that there was going to be a whole lot of other things said about it. But it’s been a fantastic ride.”
“I always wanted to do a movie that deals with slavery,” said Tarantino, flanked by Foxx and Christoph Waltz, who plays “Dr. King Shultz, a bounty hunter who enlists “Django’s” help in apprehending the fugitive “Brittle Brothers” and releases him from slavery in the process. “It seems to me that so many Westerns that actually take place during slavery times have bent over backwards to avoid it – as is America’s way. Most other countries have been forced to deal with the atrocities they have committed and the world has made them deal with the atrocities they have committed. It’s kind of everybody’s fault here in America. White, Black – nobody wants to deal with slavery. Nobody wants to stare at it.”
The audience erupted when Samuel L. Jackson described his character, “Stephen” – Calvin Candie’s man servant – as the “Spook Cheney of Candie Land,” and said he complained to Tarantino about being 15 years too old to play “Django.” “[After] I was done with that,” said Jackson. “I read the script and called him back and said, ‘So you want me to be the most despicable Negro in cinema history?’ Then we kind of laughed together and said, ‘Yeah!’ He continued:
“Not only was [Django Unchained] a great artistic opportunity to create something that was iconic, and to take what people know as Uncle Tom and turn it on it’s head in a powerful way – it also gave me an opportunity to do really nasty shit to the person that got the role that I thought I should have [played]. And it was written beautifully, so I could do that.”
“I think a lot of times people in the past may have felt nervous about playing a slave because so many of the narratives that we saw on television about slavery are about powerlessness,” said Washington. “This is not a film about that. This is a film about a Black man who finds his freedom and rescues his wife. He is an agent of his own power. He is a liberator. He’s a hero. So there’s nothing shameful about that.”
Jamie Foxx is also credited with producing Django Unchained’s lead single, “100 Black Coffins” featuring Rick Ross. In 2005, he became the fourth artist to win both an Academy Award for acting (Ray, Best Actor) and have the #1 album (Unpredictable) in the United States – following Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Barbara Streisand. Foxx also collaborated with Kanye West and Twista on West’s breakthrough smash, “Slow Jamz” in 2004, and again on “Gold Digger” – the lead single to West’s sophomore release, Late Registration (2005). In 1997, the multi-talented actor, singer, and comedian played “Keith B-Real” during the interludes on Will Smith’s nine-times platinum album, Big Willie Style. Reportedly, Smith was originally considered for the lead role in Django.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Don Johnson, Jonah Hill, and Walton Goggins were also on hand during the uproarious press conference.
Django Unchained in theaters on December 25.
RELATED: Django Unchained Soundtrack Stream
your probably white or “stephen” lol
@ anonymous,
Are you serious? The, “er” versus the “a” makes the difference? The only reason why there is a difference is due to the users slang or accent you jackass. The word is the word and there is no changing that. The word was created by slave owners nuff said. Black people began using it as a term of endearment to apparently take the sting out, but this only gives other people the opportunity to use it and prove how stupid and backwards black people can be. Go ahead and accept the foolishness that these people are feeding you. Education is the key
if you’re white and you droppin’ n-word in a black folk presence, than black folk has a fully right to kill you without no punishment. this is the only way how to stop white folks using the n-word.
Shut the fuck up retard.
haha you white that’s why you mad.
n-word
Come and get me
wierdo
your a wierdo
Yeah, killed for saying a word. Fucking hell some people are idiots.
real shit, think shit aint poppin like that for 2013 whitey, we want whats ours la raza e morenos juntos! hasta la victoria! bitch ass faggots tryna take our guns. huh. try to take mine. shit. is. real.
If i lived during slavery era i would definitely assassinating all slavemasters and slaveowners so i could free all slaves by any means.
HAHA! Good one.
nah your mother would have put to much fear in you when you were born
say N-word 109 times in a black folk presence so you know it’s real
ya ok negus
Whites find comfort in the word because it at once makes them feel better about themselves. Sort of like having your own literary kryptonite. Blacks don’t feel the need to throw the word cracker, kike, chink,wetback or pollack around because he/she doesn’t feel inadequate in that way. And just like clockwork there are trolls that visit hip hop sites just to pick race fights.
I’d worry less about white people and more about the police who are probably right behind you. Whatever you do don’t tell the white officer he’s white. Got it?
“haha you white that’s why you mad”
No, I’m mad that my tax dollars are going towards your unemployment.
that doesn’t even make sense.
LOL yeah like you don’t live off the benefits of slavery. OK African Americans and Latin Americans alike generate billions of dollars to this country every year through some cheap ass workforce yet you’re “mad” because a few thousand dollars are spent on welfare state. Spoiled bitch.
There is more whiteys on welfare than Blacks #fact. so shut up you lame pale face. Arm Leg Leg Arm Head! Word is Bond!
lol use of nigga is the only thing ppl take from this article? what the fucks wrong w/ you?
Spike Lee getting mad about Tarantino making a black movie in 3, 2…
lol yeah that nigga Spike Lee always get mad at a non black person doing a movie about blacks he a pussy
hahah jace tru tru
Let’s forget Jamie Foxx for a lil bit and talk about Houston. I always hear mad niggas runnnin around saying Swisha House put the H-Town on the Hip Hop map. Umm, that’s a LIE. How the fuck you gon say Swisha House started this shit when RAP-A-LOT has been on the grind since 1986?!?!? They’re the ones who really put the H on the map.
Right.Preaaach!!!
I don’t think so. Rap-A-Lot sure has been on the grind for the most time, but SWISHA HOUSE really made Houston relevant. Let’s keep it real son: how many people here knew that Houston had any rappers before Swisha House came out???
**raises hand…along with every knowledgable Geto Boys, UGK fan**
LOL at this niga fuck Swisha House and fuck you as well
from what ive heard the word slave comes from the word slav… the ethinicities of the majority of european slaves were from that region of europe…. just putting things n perspective for some of our immature friends who come to african american geared post and made negative comments about blacks.
theres actually a physocological term for that, its called projection
Gz up… my NIGGA
Coming to a Hip Hop website to hate black folk behind a computer screen… should be easy enough to peckewoods lol
props to Tarantino for giving blacks some film time and backround story
If you recall he gave Ving Rhames film time and had him ass raped lol
yeah but sam jackson travelled the world like cane from kung fu, solving mysteries
lots of dumb ass comments and ridiculous grammar being posted on this article. I wonder why..
shut up u grammar nazi!
Strictly fo’ my N-words!
Wassup my N-word?
Did Louis Farrakhan approved this movie?
Who cares
Slavery was mad real.
Peace to the Gods and the Earths!
i would say that slavery was much worse than both world wars.
Ohhhh woe is me. We have all been called names but we don’t cry about it. That n word is no different then the r word or c word so do I feel sorry for calling him that Nooooooo. I am a man who stands on his own ground. When I enter a room I have a choice bubble gum or kick someone’s ass. Well I’m all out of bubblegum
Anonymous:
“haha you white that’s why you mad”
No, I’m mad that my tax dollars are going towards your unemployment
++++++++++
O_o
“QUOTEMAN” BRINGING OUT THAT RACISM!
SO THIS LITTLE COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE IS SUCKING UP ALL THE TAX $ 4 UNEMPLOYMENT? THE PEOPLE WE KNOW 4 DECADES WHO HAVEN’T BEEN PAID PROPERLY & HAVE ALWAYS, ALWAYS HAD HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT, ALL OF A SUDDEN R SUPPOSED TO B SITTING ON UNEMPLOYMENT? GETTING MAX BENEFITS & EXTENSIONS 4 THE RECESSION TAKIN ALL THE TAX $?
LMMFBAO
HOW WE ALL ON WELFARE & UNEMPLOYMENT?
DIDN’T Y’ALL ALL HAVE THE GOOD MANAGER, CONSTRUCTION, BANK, SCHOOL, UNION JOBS?
BUT N!GGAS R TAKIN ALL THE TAX $ WITH THEIR MAILROOM, SECRETARY, CLERK & ASSISTANT MEDIAN TO LOW WAGES BENEFITS CORRECT? THESE SAME N!GGAS THEY SAY R REALISTICALLY AROUND 30% UNEMPLOYMENT?
LMAO
NAW THAT’S BOB & MEGAN DOWN THE STREET FROM U
U NEVA KNEW MEGAN WAS ON WELFARE GETTING MAX BENEFITS FOR LITTLE JIM, WHO’S 14 AND RIDES THE SKATEBOARD AND LUNCHES ON PIZZA & JUICE COURTESY OF FOOD STAMPS & BOB IS GETTING PAID UNDER THE TABLE FROM CONSTRUCTION THAT’S HOW HE GOT THE TRUCK & BOAT BECAUSE THEY LIVE IN A HOUSE ALREADY PAID 4 BY DEAD GRANNY
EVEN THEN THAT’S OK SO LONG AS IT AIN’T HOODRAT KISHA GETTING WIC RIGHT?
BUT U DON’T KNOW ABOUT MEGAN’S LITTLE SISTER JEN WITH 5 KIDS & 3 BABY DADDY’S IN JAIL IN MOM’S APARTMENT GETTING WELFARE OFF & ON COKE & METH, MOM JUST GOT LAID OFF AFTER 30 YEARS THEY ELIMINATED HER JOB
THOU SAYETH NOW FCUKBOI?
Please learn how to write.
I don’t read novels, waterboy.
EXACTLY WHAT I EXPECTED
FCUKBOI ANSWERS FROM “GENIUSES” WHO CAN’T COMPREHEND IN UNDER 140 CHARACTERS
not like in mississippi, alabama, georgia, florida,