Jamie Foxx Not Bothered by Profuse Use of N***er in ‘Django Unchained’
By Lora Neng
WWW.STREETGANGS.COM STAFF WRITER
December 19, 2012
“I always wanted to do a movie that deals with slavery,” said Quentin Tarantino at a press junket for his new movie “Django Unchained.” If Tarantino intended to handle the subject matter with any degree of seriousness, it’s not apparent in the trailer, but leading star Jamie Foxx is no less excited to participate in the cult pop director’s film about a freed man returning South to rescue his enslaved wife.
Jamie Foxx, who plays the hero of the plot, was very open about the gratuitous profanity in the film and especially of the use of the n-word, but he was not perturbed. “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.” He shares Tarantino’s vision, seeing the opportunity to deal head-on with slavery in a story of self-agency and empowerment.
Foxx won an Academy Award for his acting performance in “Ray” and a #1 album title with “Unpredictable,” and has collaborated with numerous hip-hop songs with the likes of Kanye West, Twista, and Will Smith.
