Quentin Tarantino has given an interview with Playboy in which he talks extensively about Django Unchained , particularly focusing upon the casting process which saw various big names attached to the project.
Will Smith was famously Tarantino’s first choice for the part of Django, but after consideration, the pair realised that the role wasn’t a perfect fit.
“We spent quite a few hours together over a weekend when he was in New York doing Men in Black III ,” says QT. “I think half the process was an excuse for us to hang out and spend time with one another. It just wasn’t 100 per cent right, and we didn’t have time to try to make it that way.”
So with Smith out of the picture, how did Tarantino finally come to settle upon Jamie Foxx?
“I met six different actors and had extensive meetings with all of them, and I went in-depth on all of their work. Idris Elba, Chris Tucker, Terrence Howard, M.K. Williams Tyrese. They all appreciated the material, and I was going to put them through the paces, make them go off against one another and kind of put up an obstacle course.
“And then I met Jamie and realized I didn’t need to do that. He was the cowboy… Forget the fact that he has his own horse - and that is actually his horse in the movie. He’s from Texas; he understands. …He understood what it’s like to be thought of as an ‘other.’”
Django Unchained opens in the UK on 18 January 2013.
