It’s not every day that one gets to witness Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio in the same room together. But the Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained, presented a who’s who of Hollywood under one banner. As can be expected, the highly fictionalized period piece exploring the themes of bondage, slavery, and emancipation began to veer into currently inappropriate territories and it was with a good measure that DiCaprio found himself being uncomfortable with some of the words being tossed around in the dialogues.
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Leonardo DiCaprio Seeks Out Samuel L. Jackson’s Advice
A Tarantino film is known for two things – expletives and its pulp fiction drama. And among the melée of plots, subplots, action, and villains, it is just another morning at work for the director to slip in beautiful dialogues that can truly be worthy of being enshrined in gold if not for dripping with “mother**kers” in the interval of every 2 words. The director made a statement when he showed off with Pulp Fiction. Django Unchained was only more of the same.
However, for the Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the situation was more than just a little experimental. So when the script presented his character saying the N-word, the Titanic actor simply did the first thing he thought was right: went to the master himself to seek out some advice. As Jamie Foxx later revealed, Samuel L. Jackson‘s philosophy hit so hard that the next day DiCaprio walked on set not as Leo, but as Calvin Candie himself.
Jamie Foxx Reveals Details About Filming the N-Word Scene
While the subject of Django Unchained may be a little sensational, Quentin Tarantino carefully navigates a lot of the history that has shaped the American past while making the almost 3-hour long drama an absolute feast and a treat to watch. But the same couldn’t be said for everyone involved with the production. Leonardo DiCaprio, for one, performs exceedingly well as the cruel plantation owner, Calvin Candie, but the responsibilities that came with portraying his on-screen alter ego did not settle well with the actor.
As Jamie Foxx reveals in an interview later, the task of using a racial slur in a dialogue with Foxx made him so incredibly uncomfortable that after a good philosophical thrashing from co-star, Samuel L. Jackson, DiCaprio turned up on set the next day totally in character and ready to go (although he would later go on to admit that he “never quite felt comfortable” working on a Tarantino set and it took him a considerable amount of time to adjust with the director’s style of storytelling).
“Leonardo DiCaprio had a problem saying the word “n***a.” [Imitating DiCaprio] “Pal, pal, it’s tough for me to say this,” and I remember Samuel L Jackson going, “Get over here, motherf**ker, this is just another Tuesday motherf**ker. I don’t give a f**k about these motherf**kers, look at who I am, motherf**ker.” And it was like… I said, “Leo, we’re not friends, this is just another Thursday. This is your property. These aren’t humans. This is your property.” And, when Leo came in the next day, it was literally like… “What’s up Leo? What’s up fam?” He didn’t speak.”
Django Unchained raised some controversy last year when singer-rapper Kanye West claimed on Piers Morgan Uncensored that director Quentin Tarantino and Jamie Foxx stole the idea for the 2012 film from a concept that Ye had originally pitched to Foxx for the music video Gold Digger back in 2005. The claims were quickly addressed and refuted by the director.
Django Unchained is available for streaming on Paramount+
Source: Metro UK
