Django Unchained Q&A - Samuel L. Jackson

I want you to talk about this the psychology of this character to me is maybe the most interesting character in the film and the sort of the relationship that he has both to Calvin Candie but also to the other slaves and the sense of relationship this small power that he's that he's holding on to small power I'm the power behind the throne I'm like the spook Chaney of of Candyland yeah I'm all up in that but see what I got to tell this story you have to have you know that particular character especially if it's in this setting so when I got the script from Clinton he just called me told me he wrote a Western and he wanted me to read Stephen I complained about being 15 years too old to be Django and I was done with that and then when I read the script I called him back and said so you want me to be the most despicable Negro in cinematic history and we're both kind of like laughs together said yeah yeah let's get on that you know and and and not only was that a great artistic opportunity and and to create something that was iconic and to take what people know us Uncle Tom and turn it on his head in a powerful way it also gave me an opportunity to do really nasty to the person who got the role that I thought I should have had payback's a and it was written beautifully that way so I could do that but you know to tell the story you have to have that guy and Stephen is the is the freest slave in the in the history of cinema he has all the powers of the master and literally is the master during the times and most times when Calvin is off mandingo fighting he makes the plantation run everybody on that plantation knows him everybody on the plantation fears him he has a feeble persona that makes people kind of disregard him in an interesting sort of way even though they fear Him they kind of think he's physically not able to keep up or do things but he's around we used to refer to him as the Basil Rathbone yeah of the antebellum self and that's what we tried to do but I wanted to play him honestly and I wanted everybody to understand that when Django shows up that's a Negro we've never seen before not only is he on a horse he's got a gun and he speaks out and the first thing I have to do is let all the other Negroes on the plantation know that's not something you can aspire to you know so let me put him in his place as quickly as I possibly can and I wholeheartedly embrace that one of the things that really needs to be taken into account we know because we have historical perspective that slavery is on its way out it's two years before the start of the Civil War they don't know that they have to think that for at least the next hundred and fifty years at least this is the way it is there is no end in sight all those northerners those bleeding-heart liberals can say anything they want don't mean nothing down here they don't understand us and ain't nothing gonna have a change there's always gonna be a Candyland this ain't going away this is this is here to stay leo that this is the first film you've been in quite a long time where you're not the only name above the title and where and it sucks and it's very uncomfortable for all of us where you are one of although perhaps not the biggest villain of the piece as Sam was just saying can you talk a little bit about what made you want to take on this role well I mean obviously mr. Tarantino here was a major factor but you know you we all read the script there was a sort of buzz about this script around for a while and people were talking about the next Tarantino movie that was about to come out and the fact that he tackled this subject matter like he did with sort of inglorious basterds and recreated his own history it and tackled something as hardcore as slavery and combined it with the genre of having it be this crazy spaghetti western feel to it with this with this lead character that sort of obliterates the the the cankerous rotting South was completely exciting and and he wrote this incredible character and I as I read it I was incredibly excited I mean this man was as Quentin put it you know he was a character that represented everything that was wrong with the South at the time you know I mean he was like a young louis xiv the young sort of prince that wanted to hold on to his position of privilege at all costs and you know justified away even though he was integrated his whole life with black people he brought up by a black man you know lived with him his entire life he had to find a moral justification to treat people this way and continue his business he had a plantation to run and so he became this sort of you know this you know I don't know hey there's a lot of you know the fact that he sees a Francophile but he doesn't speak French there's he's a walking contradiction you know what I mean he lives and is brought up by black people yet he has to regard them as not human you know what I'm saying it was this incredibly interesting rific Lee I mean I mean there was absolutely nothing about this man that I can identify with I hated him and it was and it was one of the most narcissistic self-indulgent racist horrible characters I've ever read in my entire life and and I had to do it it was too good not to do you know it was too good of a character in that sense and I don't know I mean this man writes just incredible characters and and was also of course the opportunity to work with all these great people too

Channel: Richard R

Views: 488,634

Rating: 4.8802433 out of 5

Keywords: Django, QandA, 02, h264, hd

Id: uUIVG4uCxi4

Length: 6min 31sec (391 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 23 2012