Django Unchained began the slow drip of promotional material last week with the release of a first teaser poster . Now Samuel L. Jackson has done his bit to promote the film by discussing what attracted him to the project, and how the film will cover a difficult period in American history.
"It's a Tarantino movie so there's no thought that goes into, 'am I gonna do it or not?'" says Jackson of his reaction to the opportunity. "It's kinda like, 'I'm doing that,' because I know it's going to be great."
Jackson plays Stephen, a house slave belonging to Leo DiCaprio's villainous plantation owner, Calvin Candie. "It's definitely an opportunity to explore a place in my history that I haven't thought about," says Jackson of the slavery theme, "and deal with it in an honest and very dramatic way."
"Quentin pays homage to a lot of different genres," says Jackson. "He would like to say this is a spaghetti western, and I guess in ways it is. And I guess when you start talking about Farewell Uncle Tom , Mandinga , Mandingo … all those things play in there too."
"But it's not like that's not something that's part of the fabric of this country, and it happened," he continues. "We'll deal with as honestly, and [ in ] as Tarantinoesque [ a fashion ] as we can."
Django Unchained opens in the UK on 18 January 2013.
