Django Unchained is one of the most important movies in history starring Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz in the primary roles. While the 2012 Western action movie gained wide attention following its release, several critics bashed the movie on the use of offensive words in the Quentin Tarantino-directed movie. The movie’s lead Foxx was supportive of the director amid harsh criticism.
Jamie Foxx Supported Quentin Tarantino Amid Django Unchained Criticism
Jamie Foxx. Image Credit: The Weinstein Company, Columbia Pictures
Quentin Tarantino is one of the boldest filmmakers in Hollywood who has never hesitated to compromise his unique vision and style fearing controversies and criticisms. Django Unchained was constantly bashed for the excessive use of the N-word. Jamie Foxx previously shared that the language used in Tarantino’s acclaimed and commercially hit movie was quite accurate.
“I understood the text,” Foxx told Indiewire back in 2018. “The N-word was said 100 times, but I understood the text — that’s the way it was back in that time,” the actor added.
Foxx who won an Oscar for his delicate performance in Ray, had a chat with The Guardian in 2013 discussing the controversy surrounding the movie. “They knee-jerked to slavery,” Foxx told the outlet.
“They knee-jerked towards the N-word. But I come from the south and that’s where the word grew. And I think that gave me an upper hand on the material. I know people like Stephen. I know people like Calvin Candie. I played cheese-and-wine parties for men who called us n******. But my grandmother worked as a housemaid all her life and she taught me some truths. I learned those lessons and I learned them in the south,” he added.
The actor went on to defend the acclaimed director comparing his works to resonating with Rap God, Eminem. “You can’t tell me that Eminem ain’t hot ‘cos he’s white or that Elvis Presley isn’t a bad motherf*****, or that Quentin Tarantino can’t do whatever he likes, ‘cos damn straight he can.”
As for Tarantino, he went on to win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the movie.
Jamie Foxx Revealed That Quentin Tarantino Is A Tyrant (In A Good Way)
Quentin Tarantino. Image Credit: The Weinstein Company, Columbia Pictures
Foxx was very much eager to work with Tarantino and he finally secured his position in the movie. The actor later revealed that the 61-year-old is a tyrant, as a director who would never compromise with his script. “I was just getting to learn Quinton Tarantino. So he was, again, a tyrant, you know? He was at this, ‘do not f*** my film up,’” Fox told The Howard Stern Show. “You want a director who even if you’re going off the cliff, you know that you’re going off the cliff,” the actor continued revealing that Tarantino is a unique director and he gives much less space to the actor to improvise beyond his meticulous vision.
Detailing on the first day of rehearsal, Foxx said that the director had a word with him interrupting his own style of reading the script. “I’m reading my lines like yeah and he said, ‘Cut can I talk to you for a second? Close the door.’”
In the interview, Foxx attempted to mimic what Tarantino had told him, “‘Uh what the f*** is that?’ I said, ‘what you mean?’ ‘I knew I was going to have this problem, uh, listen all of this s**t, you have to be a f***ing slave, okay? He’s a slave, he’s not cool, he’s a f***ing slave. He doesn’t know how to read. You come in with your f***ing Louis bag and your f***ing Range Rover and you’re f***ing Jess, I’m so f***ing… You’re not Jim Brown. He’s a f***ing slave and then he becomes the hero but lose that s**t.’ Door swings open he walks out.”
Foxx further revealed that despite his rehearsal encounter with the director, he would work with him again “1000 times.”
