Quentin Tarantino’s eight movie “Django Unchained” wouldn’t have been a hit with a different writer-director attached. Tarantino had become a trusted brand all to himself, and his name alone was enough to garner the fans.
“I don’t know if ‘Django’ is a Western proper,” he told the New York Times. “It’s a Southern. I’m playing western stories in the genre, but with a southern backdrop.”
Will Smith was famously in line to play the lead before eventually passing on the role because it wasn’t enough of a star vehicle. Smith would have given a fine performance, but there’s one problem. He’s from Philadelphia, not the South.
Enter Texas native Jamie Foxx, who turned out to be the perfect choice for Django and even rode his own horse, Cheetah, in the film. For the Oscar-winning actor that completely inhabited Ray Charles in the biopic “Ray,” getting into the mindset of Django proved a little more difficult than Foxx imagined.
The character of Django has an incredible arc in “Django Unchained,” going from prisoner to bounty hunter to hero, all within a matter of months. In a blessed life full of fame and fortune, shaking off some of his natural swagger and charisma wasn’t as easy as Foxx initially thought. He was playing the hero from the jump — a creative choice that Tarantino didn’t approve of at the start of production.
