Quentin Tarantino on How He Came Up with the Idea for Django Unchained
I've always wanted to do a movie that deals with America's past with slavery, but rather than doing a straight historical movie with a capital H, I actually thought it would be better wrapped up in genre. So many Westerns that take place during slavery have bent over backwards to avoid it, which is America's way and that's 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 here in America, nobody really wants to deal with it. And I just started thinking that there are so many exciting, thrilling, heartbreaking, triumphant stories that could be told from this era of American history. So living in a world where everyone says there are no new stories, there are actually a bunch of them and they're all American stories and I wanted to be first out of the gate with one.

Jamie Foxx on Why He Wanted to Play Django
I wasn't originally asked to play Django. I saw the movie was already going forward and someone else was going to play the part and I thought, "Wow, here's another project I haven't heard about." And actually I had a management change. [Laughs] I'm from Texas and being from the South -- which I love; there's no place I'd rather be from -- there are definitely racial components. Like, I would be called "nigger" growing up as a kid. So when I read the script, I didn't knee-jerk to the word nigger like somebody from New York or L.A. might have, because that was something I experienced. What I did gravitate to was the love story between Django and Broomhilda and the fact that, when we see movies about slavery, we never get a chance to see the slave actually fight back. In this movie, there's a lot of firsts and while we were shooting we were commenting on some of the things audiences will see for the first time.

Kerry Washington on Why Django Unchained is a Superhero Movie
A lot of times, actors in the past may have felt nervous about playing a slave because so many of the narratives we're told about slavery have been about powerlessness. And 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. It's inspiring. I was very moved by the love story, particularly at a time when black people were not allowed to fall in love and get married, because that kind of connection got in the way of the selling of human beings. So this kind of story is not only educational, but hopeful. Django's out to get his woman and he's got to take down slavery to get her. I said to Quentin in our first meeting that I wanted to do this movie for my father, because my father grew up in a world where there were no black superheroes. And that's who Django is.

Samuel L. Jackson on Playing "The Most Despicable Negro in Cinematic History"
Quentin called me and told me he had written a Western and wanted me to play the part of Stephen. First I complained about being 15 years too old to play Django and then I read the script and told him, "So you want me to play the most despicable Negro in cinematic history?" And we were both kind of like laughing at each other and going, "Yeah, let's get on that." Not only was it a great artistic opportunity -- to take what people know of Uncle Tom and turn it on its head in a powerful way -- it also gave me an opportunity to do really nasty shit to the person who got the role I thought I should have gotten. [Laughs] But to tell this story, you have to have a guy like Stephen. He's the freest slave in the history of cinema. He has all the powers of the Master and literally is the Master most of the time. He keeps the plantation running and everyone knows him and fears him. So when Django shows up, he's a Negro none of them never seen before. Not only is he on a horse, he's got a gun. And the first thing Stephen's gotta do is let all the other Negros on the plantation know that this not something you can aspire to. I've got to put him in his place as soon as I can and correct that.

Leonardo DiCaprio on Playing a Character He Hated
My character, Calvin Candie, represents everything that was wrong with the South. He's the prince that wants to hold onto his position at all costs and even though he was integrated with black people all his life, he had to find a moral justification to treat them this way and continue his business. There was absolutely nothing about this man I could identify with. I hated him -- he's one of the most narcissistic, self-indulgent, racist, all-around horrible characters I've ever read in my entire life. So naturally, I had to do it; it was too good of a character to not play. One of the pivotal moments for me was the initial read-through, where I asked Sam and Jamie if I had to go this far and be this atrocious. And they both said, "Look, if you sugarcoat this, people are going to resent the hell out of you. By holding the character back, you're going to be holding the film back because people are going to tell you aren't telling the truth." And that ignited me in my work. During shooting, it felt like we were all cheerleaders for each other, like, "Be even worse to me on the next take! Keep going!"

Quentin Tarantino on His Biggest Fear Making the Movie
You know, it's one thing to write a scene where 100 slaves walk through deep-as-shit mud wearing chains and metal collars. It's another thing to actually get 100 black folks, put them in chains and march them through the mud. Same thing with the cotton plantation -- I had to put an army of black folks dressed as slaves picking cotton in the background. And I started to question, could I do it? Can I be the reason this is happening? I don't think I've ever thought that way about anything in my work before. I had actually come up with the idea of maybe shooting those sequences in the West Indies or Brazil. Those countries have their own issues with slavery, but since this is an American story, there would be a once-removed quality. Frankly, my problem was having Americans do it and I was almost trying to escape it. So I went out to dinner with Sidney Poitier, who is kind of like a father figure to me, and I was explaining my harebrained scheme. He listened to me and then basically told me that I had to man up. He said, "For whatever reason, I think you were born to tell this story and you need to not be afraid any longer. You can't tell this story if you're afraid of your own movie. Your actors are all professionals, so treat them with love and respect. Let them know why they're there and what we're doing and what we're trying to get across and you'll be okay. And by the way, you're doing this in the South. Those people need money!"
Sam Jackson: And then you found out that [a lot of the extras] had been slaves in other movies!
Tarantino: Yeah, there was one guy who was told me, "Oh yeah, I was just a slave in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter." [Laughs]

The Cast on Shooting the Movie on an Actual Plantation
Kerry Washington: We were shooting an actual slave plantation called Evergreen Planation in Louisiana and it felt like we were making the film on sacred ground. That started to influence everyone's acting and behavior. There was one day on set where we were picking cotton in the Louisiana heat and you could tell that all of this was wearing on everybody a little bit. We had this one background actor who was a pastor and he paused everybody and said, "We have to remember that we are the answers to these people's prayers. That the people who did this work dreamed of a day where we would not be property, we would own property. And that we could read and vote and get married and have a job and be compensated." His words forced everyone to man up and realize how blessed we are to be here and tell this story and not be victimized by it.
Don Johnson: My dresser who helped me get into my costume everyday found out that her ancestors were buried in the cemetery on the plantation. And that was a serious day, when she came and told me that. She was visibly shaken.
Sam Jackson: The first day I got there, I went looking for Quentin and I started walking through the cotton fields that led to the plantation. I saw all the extras in their slave gear working in the cotton fields and white dudes on horses watching them with shotguns. And I was like, "We're really doing this." It was almost like a Twilight Zone episode or something. Like "Oh shit... is this back?"

Quentin Tarantino on Why He Told This Story Straight, With No Narrative Tricks
It was a conscious decision from page one not to do my normal narrative tricks. This had to be Django's journey from beginning to end. Sometimes Harvey [Weinstein] would say, "Can we do a Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2" and I was like, "No it won't work here." It worked there because that story was very episodic. But here, it would be completely unsatisfying. You have to see Django start his story and complete it in one scenario. As far as the film taking shape in editing, the biggest thing was that there are so many different emotions in this movie. There's the exciting Western adventure, there's the gallows humor and then there's the pain and catharsis and hopefully at the end, there's the cheering. If the audience isn't cheering at the end I haven't done my job. So balancing all those different emotions so that I got that cheer was the biggest issue as far as editing it was concerned. Frankly, I could have gone further with the pain in the movie because I have more of a tolerance. I wanted to show the audience how bad it was, but not traumatize them so badly that they can't enjoy the movie and be where I need them to be in the last reel. I could very well do an expanded version one day, but it's too soon right now. I'm all in on this version; let's get this version out there. We're actually doing a comic book and with the comic, we followed the entire script. So a lot of the sequences we dropped or didn't shoot for the movie are in the comic book. And I've gotta tell you, I'm as excited about the comic book as I am about the movie. It's boss.

The Cast on How the Public Might Respond to the Movie
Jamie Foxx: Honestly, black folks were holding their breaths when this movie was about to drop. But when you see it, as I did as an African-American, you're like "Wow." It's just amazing that a movie about slavery could be entertaining. This movie was like a gymnastics routine in its degree of difficulty, with all the flips and turns we had to do. And when it lands as perfectly as it does, you win.
Sam Jackson: At the end of the day, Quentin always writes movies that he wants to see. We watch a lot of the same kinds of movies and he writes a role for me that I want to do because I want to see myself in that kind of movie. And I think that I represent a lot of moviegoers and he represents a lot of movie fans. When you get it right, the result is an entertaining film. There's some stuff in here that's historically exaggerated and horrific, but it's a great film. It does what you want a movie to do when you pay your $13.50 and sit in the dark with a bunch of strangers.
Kerry Washington: Also, l think that the movie's theme -- the impetus behind the adventure and action -- is love. It's a completely universal theme. Everyone wants to be loved so badly that their prince would slay the dragons.
Sam Jackson: Aw, no -- that's some girly shit!
Kerry Washington: Yeah, there's a lot of girls out there! There's something for everybody.
Sam Jackson: Girly love shit. [Laughs]

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