You've talked about wanting to make a Western
but it is impossible to watch this movie without
thinking about how slavery as a subject has
been largely absent from Hollywood cinema
in the roughly 100 years since, Birth of a
Nation. What sense of responsibility did you
have in terms of making a movie that brings
slavery out, front and center like this?
QT: Well I always wanted to make a movie that
deals with America's horrific past with slavery,
but the way I wanted to deal with it is as
opposed to doing it as a huge historical movie
with a capital H—I thought it could be better
if it was wrapped up in genre. It seems to
me that so many Westerns that actually take
place during slavery times have just bent
over backwards to avoid it, as is America's
way. It's actually kind of interesting because
most other countries have been forced to deal
with the atrocities they've committed, actually
the world has made them deal with the atrocities
they've committed, but it's kind of everybody's
fault here in America—white or black, nobody
wants to deal with it, nobody wants to stare
at it. I think, in the story of all the different
types of slave narratives that could have
existed in this 245 years of slavery in America,
there are a zillion stories, a zillion dramatic,
exciting, adventurous, heart-breaking, triumphant
stories that could be told, and living in
a world now where people say there are no
new stories—there's a whole bunch of them,
and they're all American stories that could
be told; so I wanted to be one of the first
ones out of the gate with it.
Now Jamie, although Kerry and Sam if you want
to jump in on this too I'll just ask about...
QT: Black question.
When you read the script, what were your first
impressions about being asked to play slaves
in this movie?
JF: Well, I wasn't asked play anything, I
actually saw that the movie was already going
and someone else was supposed to play the
role, and I though, "Wow, here's another project
that I don't know about." [Laughter] Actually,
I had a management change. To explain my acting
hustle I said, "I don't care what it is, it's
Quentin Tarantino and all these people here."
These people here can tackle any subject matter
through artistic ability, that's the first
thing. Reading the script—I'm from Texas,
so being in the south, there's a racial component--and
I love the south, there's no other place I'd
rather be from—but there are racial components
in the south; my being called nigger growing
up as a kid—so when I read the script I
didn't knee jerk to the word nigger like someone
from New York or L.A. would knee jerk, because
that's something I experienced. What I did
gravitate toward was the love story of Django
and Broomhilda, and the firsts about everything
in this film. When you see movies about slavery,
as Quentin has made mention to this, we never
get the chance to see the slave fight back,
actually do something for himself. In this
movie there's a lot of firsts. When we were
shooting the movie we would comment on how
these are some things people are going to
see for the first time. For me, it was about
the work and we knew that coming into it there
would be a lot of other things said about
it, but it's been a fantastic ride, thus.
KW: I think a lot of times people in the past
may have felt nervous about playing a slave
because so many of the narratives that have
been told in film and television about slavery
are about powerlessness. This is not a film
about that, this is a film about a black man
who gets his freedom and rescues his wife.
He is an agent of his own power, he's a liberator,
and he's a hero; so there's nothing shameful
about that. It's really inspiring, exciting,
and hopeful. I was very moved by the love
story, particularly in a time of our history
when black people weren't allowed to fall
in love or get married because that kind of
connection got it the way of the selling of
human beings. So to have a story between a
man and his wife, at a time when a black people
weren't allowed to be husband and wife, was
not only educational, but again, hopeful.
We've seen this love story a million times
about star-crossed lovers, it's just that
they don't come from two different Italian
families like Romeo and Juliette, the thing
that stands in the way of them being with
each other is the institution of slavery.
Django's out to get his woman, but he's got
to take down the institution of slavery to
do it. The other thing in terms of firsts
was, I said to Quentin in our first meeting,
I feel like I want to do this movie for my
father, because my father grew up in a world
where there were no black super heroes, and
that's what this movie is.
Sam, the character of Stephen...
SJ: You ask one question ...Oh, now you're
changing the question? You don't want to know
how I felt about all this?
You can mention that, but you've worked with
Quentin so many times I feel like the more
interesting thing to ask you...
SJ: I have intelligent things to say about
this shit.
I want to talk about the psychology of this
character that is to me, maybe the most interesting
character in the film. The relationship that
he has to Calvin Candie, but also to the other
slaves, and the small power he's holding onto...
SJ: Small power!? I'm the power behind the
throne. I'm like the spook-Chaney of Candieland.
Yeah, I'm all up in that. To tell this story
you have to have that character, specifically
in that type of setting. I got the script
from Quentin, he called me and told me he
wrote a Western and he wanted me to read Stephen,
and I complained about being 15 years too
old to play Django. When I read the script
I called him back and said, "So, you want
me to be the most despicable Negro in cinematic
history?" We both kind of laughed together
and said. "Yeah! Let's get on that." Not only
was that a great artistic opportunity to create
something that was iconic, and to take what
people know as Uncle Tom and turn it on its
head in a powerful way; it also gave me the
opportunity to do some really nasty shit to
the person who got the role I should have
had.
QT: Payback's a bitch.
SJ: Yeah, it is. It was written beautifully
that way, so I could do that. To tell this
story, you've got to have that guy. Stephen
is the freest slave in the history of cinema.
He has all the powers of the master and literally
is the master in the times when Calvin is
off Mandingo fighting; he makes the plantation
run. Everyone on that plantation knows him
everyone on that plantation fears him. He
has a feeble persona that makes people disregard
him in an interesting way, even though they
fear him. They think he's physically unable
to keep up and do other things, but he's around.
We used to refer to him as the Basil Rathbone
of the Antebellum South, and that's what we
tried to do. 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 got a gun, and he speaks out. The first
thing I have to do is let all the other Negros
on the plantation know—that's not something
you can aspire to, so let me put him in his
place as quickly as I possibly can. You gotta
correct that and them know, "You're in the
place you're gonna be, and there's no other
place you can be. This nigger's an anomaly,
so don't even think about trying to be that."
I whole heartedly embraced that.
QT: One of the things that really has 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 at least for the next 150
years, this is the way it is, there's no end
in sight. "All those northerners, those bleeding
heart liberals can say anything they want,
it don't mean nothing down here. They don't
understand us, and ain't nothing gonna ever
change."
SJ: Even at the end you hear me saying, "There's
always going to be a Candieland, this ain't
going away, this is here to stay."
Leo, this is the first film you've been in,
in quite a long time where you're not the
only name above the title...
LD: And it sucks! It's very uncomfortable
for all of us.
...but also where you are one of--although
perhaps not the biggest villain of the piece,
but a villain non-the-less. Can you talk about
what made you want to take on this role?
LD: Obviously, Mr. Tarantino here was a major
factor. You know, we all read the script,
there was a lot of buzz about this script
for awhile, and people were talking about
the next Tarantino movie that was about to
come out. The fact that he tackled this subject
matter, like he did with Inglorious Basterds
and created his own history, and tackle something
as hard core as slavery and combine it with
the genre of having it be this crazy Spaghetti
Western feel to it, with this lead character
that obliterates the cankerous, rotting south
was completely exciting. He wrote this incredible
character, and as soon as I read it I was
incredibly excited. This man, as Quentin put
it, is a character that represents everything
that's wrong with the south at the time. He's
like a young Louis XIV, he's this young sort
of prince that's trying to hold onto his privileges
at all costs. Even though he was integrated
his whole life with black people, even being
brought up by a black man, and live with him
his entire life, he has to find a moral justification
to treat people this way, and continue his
business. The fact that he's this Francophile
but he doesn't speak French point out that
he's a walking contradiction. He's lives with
and is brought up by black people, yet he
has to regard them as not human. There was
absolutely nothing about this man I could
identify with. I hated him and it was one
of the most narcissistic, self indulgent,
racist characters I've ever read in my entire
life.
SJ: You had to do it.
LD: I had to do it. It was too good, not to
do. It was too good of a character in that
sense. This man just writes incredible characters,
and of course, it was the opportunity to work
with all these great people, too.
I understand in the scene where you had to
break a glass, you actually broke that glass?
JF: Man that was crazy. He didn't see what
was going on. We were doing a diner table
scene, and that whole day people were coming
up from the offices wanting to see Leo doing
the scene. He and Sam were just going to work,
it was amazing. What happened was, the shot
glass somehow slide over what he was always
slamming his hand down on. In one take, he
slams his hand down and the shot glass goes
through his hand. Now blood is shooting out
of his hand and I'm thinking, "Does everybody
else see this?" This is crazy, and he keeps
going. I almost turned into a girl just looking
at it. What was amazing was that he was so
into his character that even when they finally
said cut, he was still this guy. I think people
were ready to give him a mini standing ovation
at the time. It was amazing to see that and
amazing to see the process from my end, of
these two guys making it real. At one point,
we were in rehearsals, and Leo is saying his
lines—nigger this and nigger that—and
he was like, "Buddy, this is tough." Then
Sam pulls him to the said, and I'm paraphrasing,
but Sam pulls him to the side and said, "Hey
mother fucker, this is just another Tuesday
for us, let's go."
KW: That sounds like an exact quote.
JF: They were trying to really go back to
that time. I don't know if you remember this,
but the next day I go to Leo and I said, "Yo,
what's up Leo," but it was almost like you
didn't hear me. He didn't speak to me that
day. They actually went into these characters
and made these characters come to life.
Dr. King Schultz, Christoph Waltz—can you
talk about reuniting with Quentin on this
movie and was there any hesitation on either
of your parts on working together again so
soon after this very iconic character in Inglorious
Basterds?
CW: Neither, there was no reunification and
there was no working again. This was just
another mushroom of the fungus that was growing
subcutaneously in me, all the time.
SJ: Process that!
QT: I had this same problem with Sam for about,
a decade. It's hard not to write for these
guys; they say my dialogue, so well. For ten
years I'd write something cool; Bill for instance.
For seven months of the year and half I spent
writing Kill Bill, Bill sounded just like
Sam. They say my dialogue so well. The way
I write, I always kind of fancy it as poetry,
and they're the ones that make it poetry;
they come out of my pen. Sometimes it's not
even appropriate, but I can't shut it off.
I've been wanting to do this story for a long
time and there was never a German, dentist,
bounty hunter in the story. The next thing
I know, I sat down and wrote that opening
scene, and he just flew right out of the pen,
like it was the tenant of God, boom.
Christoph, can you talk about the physical
training for the role, because I know you
injured yourself pretty severely at one point.
CW: I worked very hard, and succeeded most
gloriously in falling off a horse, very quickly.
This was very early on in the training. Then
on, my work was a little slower for the first
few months, then I got back up on the horse.
Don, your performance is very exuberant, which
is something we seem to think of when it comes
to Quentin's actors, they always seem to be
having a lot of fun. What is it about working
with Quentin that brings this out in a performance?
DJ: As Quentin told me, he said, "You sing
in my key." I looked at Big Daddy Bennett
as a character who had his fiefdom and he
was fully engaged in his fiefdom. As everybody
has mentioned, they all though this was going
to go on forever; until these two mother fuckers
showed up. They messed up everything, so they
gotta go.
SJ: You tell 'em Big Daddy! I love her.
DJ: I enjoyed working with him. We all have
what I think is a second hand or this look.
There's almost no dialogue needed. I'll finish
a take and I'll look at Quentin and he'll
give me some sort of hand signal, and he looks
like one of those Navy signal men or something
like that, and I know exactly what he means,
but I don't know how I know it. We'll do it
again, and I'll see him and this time the
signal means something like, let's bring that
in on the other aircraft carrier. It was fun.
SJ: I remember the first day I got that, I
went looking for Quentin and the day I got
there the slaves were in the field you guys
were coming up on the plantation for the first
time, Jamie has his little lord Fauntleroy
suit on, and I was walking down that road
through the cotton field. I didn't realize
until I got to the middle of the cotton field
that all these extras were out there in their
slave gear, and there was cotton and they
were picking it, and there where these white
dudes on horses with shotguns. Then I look
back and Don was up on the porch of the big
house and I was like, "Oh shit, we're doing
this." It was almost like a Twilight Zone
episode, it was crazy. I walked up there,
and he had an ice cold drink in his hand,
and I was like, "Damn, this is happening."
It was so awesome, but everything started
to help us do this movie.
KW: We were shooting on an actual slave plantation
called Evergreen plantation in Louisiana.
That lent itself to all of us kind of disappearing
into the story because you felt like you were
making the film on sacred ground. You felt
like you were re-enacting this behavior where
these crimes against humanity were actually
committed. It started to infiltrate everybody's
acting and behavior, choice and relationships.
SJ: Crazy stuff like that happened, like when
you got whipped, all the bugs stopped making
noises and the birds stopped singing. It was
kind of like, "Oh shit is this back?"
DJ: My dresser, who helped me get my costume
every day found out that her ancestors' were
buried in the cemetery on the plantation.
That was a serious day, when she came to work
and told me that.
KW: And they were German.
DJ: That's right, they were German, I forgot
about that.
Jonah, when you get a call from Quentin Tarantino
asking you to play a role called, Baghead
#2 in a movie a movie about slavery, do you
even ask to see the script at that point?
Did it take you awhile to find Baghead #2,
or did you just say yes?
JH: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know about
you guys but I got into this business to work
with great film makers and so I don't care
if he wants me to be an extra in one of his
movies. I mean, I don't even know what I'm
doing the fuck up here with these guys; I
only worked for like two days on the film.
It's kind of an ego stroke that you even want
me here, because I don't really have anything
to do with it. I think it was the weekend
that Moneyball had come out and I met with
Quentin and he asked if I would do it, and
I was just overjoyed. There wasn't any thought
about it, he wanted me to be in the film and
I was just so excited to be there.
Mr. Walt Goggins, as a southerner and someone
who's made a lot of films...
WG: Am I the only one? I thought we had a
lot of southerner's, Tennessee, Texas...
KW: South Bronx.
Did you have any sense of a cultural responsibility
or social responsibility in brining this chapter
of southern history to life?
WG: The scene in the barn for me, what was
so difficult about that and the responsibility
I felt as an actor was showing literally and
metaphorically, taking a man's ability to
spread his seed in my hands and rendering
that impotent. I think that's what slavery
did to African Americans in this country for
245 years. I just tried to be as truthful
and as honest as I could in order to respect
the pain endured by African Americans in this
country. I was just grateful to be given the
opportunity to do that. The thing about Billy
Crash and what Quentin does so well is; for
poor whites in out country at that time, there
weren't a lot of economic opportunities. Once
place you could get a job, was on a plantation,
and you could rise through the slave corporation.
If you were smart and I guess if you were
ruthless enough, you could really rise to
a position of power. Unfortunately, that was
at the expense of a lot of human beings. For
me it was about showing a person who had something
to loose by Django being there. It was not
just the color of his skin, but it was also
my character's way of life, economically speaking.
I was so happy that Quentin gave me that in
to this guy, it made it really three dimensional.
SJ: All that came though, too.
I think the movie is perfect as it is, with
its views, but I read this morning that someone
said, a lot was cut form the film. Will we
see in the future, everything you cut?
DJ: I'm not exactly sure. I'm going to wait
till after the film plays, goes around the
world, does what it's gonna do, and then I'm
going to make a decision. I always write these
huge scripts that are almost like novels,
and they're not blueprints for a movie. In
fact, I think if I had this to do this whole
thing all over again, I would have actually
just published this as a novel, and then done
an adaptation of that, after the fact—maybe
next time. I could very well do like what
Kevin Costner did when he did the expanded
version of Dances With Wolves on Laser Disc,
I could very well do that. I wouldn't be surprised
if I did, but it's too soon right now. I'm
all in on this version; I'm all in on it.
So let's get this version out there, play
it, everyone gets it; because if I put some
of that stuff in, it's going to change the
story. That's good, that can be cool, but
I want this story to be the story for awhile.
For the cast, what types of external sources
did you use to help further create or further
develop your character?
CW: In a way I think "outside source" is a
contradiction in terms. I can only speak for
myself, but the source is the script. The
script has a source; I can point it out to
you.
QT: On the same line, we've got the first
issue of the Django Unchained comic book.
The thing that's interesting about the comic
book, more to the last question's point, we
keep the entire script in the comic book.
Some of the sequences and big chapters we
dropped, the ones we didn't even bother shooting
because we didn't want a four hour movie,
are in the comic book. I gotta say I'm as
excited about the comic book as I am about
the movie; it's boss!
DJ: I can tell you that that period of time
is one of my favorite periods in history in
early developing America, because it's full
of deceit, and it's rich in human character,
or lack there of. From the Native American's
to slavery, I've read a lot about it. Blood
and Thunder is a great book that I've read
before I started this film. There's a lot
of outside material and for me I like to start
with outside information and just research.
Then start layering it into my character.
You know the ethics of the time, the social
graces of the time. Did they have indoor toilets?
No. How were manners created? So I start form
the outside and then I slowly start to bring
it all inside. Like Christoph was saying,
there's the source and then for the character,
for me, I like to know what it's like on that
day, in that time, with that energy. I do
a lot of that work before hand, so when 
I show up, it just comes out; hopefully.
Leo, what did you learn from playing Clavin
Candie?
LD: What was great about doing this roll honestly
was the sense of community and the support
mechanism that I had every single day. This
was the first character I played that I had
this much disdain and this much hatred for.
It was a very uncomfortable environment to
walk into. I've dealt with and seen racism
in my surroundings in my life growing up,
but to the degree that I had to treat other
people in this film, was incredibly difficult
and disturbing. I think it was disturbing
for actors on both ends of the spectrum, but
it was a very uncomfortable situation. We
were talking about it before, one of the pivotal
moments for me as this character, and going
to the places I had to go to as far as the
treatment of other people was this initial
read-through we had, I think I brought up
the point of, "Do we need to go this far?
Do wee need to push it this far? Does it need
to be this violent? Do I need to be this atrocious
to other people?" Sam and Jamie both said,
"Look man, if you sugar coat this, people
are going to resent the hell out of you."
You have to push this guy to the utter extremes
because this is all, not only historically
accurate, but it went even further than that
with these atrocities.
By holding the character back, you'd be doing
an injustice to the film and people will feel
that you aren't going after the truth. That
was sort of the thing that ignited me into
going the way I do with the character. Once
I did do even more research, and once I started
to watch the documentaries, and read about
the sugar plantations; yes, we're just scratching
the surface of what happened in our country.
It's a sore subject matter and it's a subject
matter that should be looked at more often
and not shied away from, and I commend Quentin
for making a film that combines so many different
genres and is as daring as it is at actually
making the subject matter entertaining for
an audience. It's a daring concept. What was
great was to at the core of it, have a group
of actors that were all mutually there for
one another, to support and drive each other
further with subject matter that was very
difficult for all of us, and I couldn't feel
like I had a better support mechanism. I honestly
thought like we were cheerleaders for everyone,
like, "Damn, that shit was good! Be even worse
to me, next take."
KW: I felt like we relied on each other because
we'd be in these awful places and then Quentin
would call cut and we'd all go, "Is everybody
okay? Alright, let's do it again."
JF: Especially for Kerry, that one scene when
they had to grab your head, we were all like,
"Whoa, you took a beating."
QT: For two days straight, too. There's the
real way to do it, and that's Kerry's way,
anything else is bullshit, as far as Kerry's
concerned. She was taking a beating for like
two days straight but I was like, "Hey, no,
it's all good. That's how we have to be, anything
else is going to be baby. We gotta go forward."
I 
was like man, she's the real deal. There was
only one thing I was sort of uncomfortable
about, not shooting, but at the very, very
beginning stages of finishing the script.
It's one thing to write, "Exterior: Greenville—where
the slave auction town was—100 slaves walk
through this deep shit mud in chains, being
moved along wearing masks and metal collars,"
and this whole town that's built as almost
this black Auschwitz. It's one thing to write
that, it's another thing to get a hundred
black folks, put them in chains and march
them through the mud. The same thing about
putting the cotton in, "An army of black folks
dressed as slaves in the hot sun, picking
cotton." I started to question if I could
do it. I don't think I've ever thought that
about anything when it came to my work before.
I started thinking, "Can I do it, can I be
the reason that that's even happening?"
I actually came up with an idea of possibly
shooting just those sequences alone, maybe
in the West Indies or shooting it in Brazil;
where they have their own issues of slavery,
but since this is an American story, there
would be a once removed quality. Frankly,
my problem was having Americans do that. I
was almost trying to escape it. How can I
do it, but get around it someway, so I don't
have to deal with the pain? I went out to
diner with Sidney Poitier, and I just finished
writing the script, and he's kind of a father
figure to me. I was explaining my little harebrain
scheme of escaping, maybe doing this and maybe
doing that. He listened to me and he basically
told me, I had to man up. He goes, "Quentin,
for whatever reason, I think you were born
to tell this story. You need to not be afraid
of your own movie. You can't tell this story,
if you're afraid of your own movie. You just
need to do it. Everybody knows what time it
is, we're all professionals, everybody gets
it. Just treat them with love and respect,
treat them like actors, not atmosphere, let
them know why they're there, and what you're
doing and what you're trying to get across;
and it will all be good. By the way, you're
going to be doing this in the south, those
people need money, and they need jobs, you
gotta do it."
SJ: Then you find out they played slaves in
Uncle Tom's Cabin, and they're scheduled to
go into other roles as slaves when they're
done with you.
QT: Yeah, there were a lot of guys who said,
"Yeah man, I was just in Lincoln. I was a
slave in that; I'm a slave in this.'
SJ: "I got that, I'm good with that."
KW: Well, I'll tell you one thing that came
as a result of doing that though that was
one of the most profound days on our set.
We were shooting one of these days of picking
cotton in the Louisiana heat and everybody
was really hot and exhausted. You could tell
that the waking up every day and putting yourself
in the mental state of somebody whose constitution
says you're a fraction of a person and not
a whole human being; you know it was just
starting to wear on everybody a little bit.
We had this one background actor who was a
pastor who kind of paused everybody and said,
"We have to remember that we are the answer
to these people's prayers. That the people
who did this work dreamt of a day where you
could not be property, but own property. Where
you could read, where you could vote, where
you can get married, where you could have
a job and be compensated." Again, on that
sacred ground it forced everybody to shift
and man up, and own that fact that we can
be so blessed to come here and tell this story,
and not feel victimized by it, and know that
it's a story about a hero. That's a profound
opportunity.
This film is probably your most straight forward
in terms of chronology. Was there an earlier
cut where you fractured the timeline as you
have in past films? In general, how did you
find this particular movie in the editing
room?
QT: It was a conscious decision right from
page one, not to do my normal narrative tricks;
to have separate chapters, or all of a sudden
look at the piece from a different character's
point of view or perspective accumulate somewhere
else down the line—this had to be Django's
journey from beginning to end, it had to be
his odyssey. As the terrains changed, as Django
and Schultz cross all over America to get
to Broomhilda; that journey was so important.
A couple of times, Harvey would say, "Well,
can we do a Kill Bill Volume 1 and Volume
2 type of thing?" It wouldn't work here. It
worked in Kill Bill because it was very episodic.
It would be completely unsatisfying. People
would have a right to get up in arms at the
end of the first movie if we did that. You
need to see Django start his journey, and
complete it, in one scenario. That's what
was really important about it. As far as the
film taking shape in editing, because there
are so many different emotions in this movie;
there's the exciting Western adventure aspect
of it, there's the gallous humor like comedy
that runs through it—especially with the
pairing of these two guys. There's the pain
of the story, there's the catharsis of the
story, there's the suspense, and hopefully
at the very end, there's the cheering. If
the audience isn't cheering at the end, then
I haven't done my job. So balancing all those
different emotions so I got that cheer at
the end, was the biggest issue when the editing
is concerned. Frankly, when it came to the
pain, I could have gone forward, I have more
of a tolerance. Part of it was, I wanted to
show how bad it was, but then I don't want
to also traumatize the audience so bad that
they can't enjoy the movie, and be where I
need them to be in the last reel.
I once had a scary experience on a horse on
my honeymoon; did you guys have any of your
own troubles with the horses, Christoph I
know you said you feel off one? I'm sure directing
with horses isn't that east as well?
CW: I've been married too long, honeymoon's
over. I just fell off.
JF: I actually ride my own horse in the film.
When I met with Quentin, he said, "We'll I
gotta get you on a horse." I told him, "Actually,
I have my own horse that I got about 5/6 years
ago for my birthday." So he said, 'Yeah, let's
go ahead and try it." So, my horse is actually
in the film, and what's interesting about
my horse in Django is that they sort of learn
together. As he learned tricks, Django was
sort of evolving as a person, as this super
hero, all the way until the end of the movie
where you see my horse Cheetah do the trick
at the end.
SJ: The horse donuts.
JF: Yeah, the little horse spinouts. So, for
the whole duration of the film we worked on
that. The only thing that was scary was riding
bareback. Quentin comes up and says, "Well,
I need to get you on the horse bareback just
for a little bit, just let it gallop a little
bit." The horse was used to the stunt person,
so when I got on the back of the horse and
onto this first track, there were people at
the end of the track with their sleeves rolled
up, ready to catch me, in case something happened.
The horse turns and sees the camera truck
and is used to the stunt person—so off he
goes, 28 miles an hour. Now, on the outside,
I look like Django — but on the inside,
I was Little Richard. I was like, "Oh, Lord
Jesus. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, please stop
this horse, Lord Jesus stop this horse." So
I'm thinking, we got it, right? Of course,
as directors go, Quentin pulls up and says,
"Hey man, you know that was great—I need
to get it, one more time."
So what happens this time is, at first the
camera car was a little behind us and there
was no real action cue. This time we go back
and this time out of his turn, the horse sees
the camera car it about 10-15 yards up ahead,
so he now thinks, he's behind. So out of the
turn, he takes off again, only this time,
I'm on the side of the horse. Dash (the stunt
man) told me before, "Hey look, this is freaking
crazy but look, if you feel like you're about
to come off the horse, just let go of the
son of a bitch, but get off." In my mind,
those words are ringing in my head as I'm
on the side of this horse going 28 miles an
hour and I'm thinking, "He's a damn fool if
he thinks I'm letting go and getting off this
horse." Now, luckily since the horse did it
twice burns out just a little bit, so it allowed
me to bounce back on top of it and get it
done, but that was the craziest.
QT: I gotta say though, that's actually in
my top three favorite Django shots of the
movie. You with a handful of mane and a rifle
in the other hand, he doesn't even have use
of his hands. That was just, damn, Burt Reynolds,
Navaho Joe in every way.
Do you have any plans to show the movie to
the President or any type of Republican politician
types?
QT: I don't know about that. I wouldn't be
surprised Barack and Michelle watched the
movie. That wouldn't be the most surprising
thing in the world.
This is one of the most outrageous and courageous
films to come out of Hollywood in awhile,
yet it's being very well received, why do
you think that is?
QT: Well hopefully because it's a good movie,
and that's not a smart ass answer. When you
talk about this, you always seem to have to
go down the dirt road of having to talk about
the horrible time of that past, and that's
fair enough, but I hope, that if you leave
your house and go to a movie theater and pay
for a ticket, to sit with a bunch of strangers
and watch this movie, you're going to have—ultimately
by the end of it a great time at the movies;
and I think so far, so good.
SJ: Quentin always writes movies he wants
to see. We watch a lot of the same kind of
movies and we talk about that stuff all the
time, so he writes movies that he wants to
see. He generally writes a role in there that
I'm gonna do, because I want to see myself
in that kind of movie. I think I represent
a lot of movie goers; he represents a lot
of fans, also. When you get it right, you
get it right. It's an entertaining film. Yeah,
you know there's some stuff in there, and
some of it's horrific, but it's a great film.
When you come out of there, you feel like
you got your monies worth, and ultimately
that's what happens.
KW: I also think the theme, the impedance
for all the adventure and action and all of
it is, love. It's a completely universal theme;
everybody wants to be loved, so badly, that
their prince would slay the dragons...
SJ: Oh that's some girlie shit, it's Shaft
on a horse. It's Shaft in the old west with
a little Hong Kong ballet thrown in there.
KW: Something for everybody, something for
everybody.
Calvin Candie, in that scene with the skull,
it reminds me of a mixture of a Grimm's fairy
tale "The Prince Who Feared Nothing" and Nazi
doctor, Mengele. Can you talk about the inspirations
for that evil you say you have nothing in
common with?
LD: That sequence where we talk about phrenology—that's
when the culmination of everything in that
character comes to be, in that scene there.
Phrenology was that insane sort of pseudo
science at the time, where people were trying
to examine the inner working of the human
skull to determine our motivations, our instincts,
and our emotions. What southern slave owners
did pre-Civil War, during that time was use
that pseudo bogus science to justify the difference
between these two peoples. Like I said, he's
this walking contradiction, he's the Francophile
that doesn't speak French, he thinks he's
a scientist but knows nothing about real science
or what the hell he's talking about. He starts
to examine and prove to these people that
essentially there is a difference between
"our two species." It's this sort of insane
logic that gives him this justification for
treating people the way he did. That was my
connection to him.
Also, he is that Prince that is so incredible
self indulgent thinks 24 hours a day about
what's going to satisfy him without any sort
of regard for human life. He was born into
a world of privilege and wanted to sustain
this plantation at any cost, sustain his family's
lineage. You have to understand at the time,
for him, slaves were the oil of the south.
To him, they were the driving force that one
a daily basis produced the crop that gave
him the money to sustain his business, and
to take them away from him, would be to strip
him of everything he's known in his life;
it would have stripped him of his identity.
I don't know if that answered your question...
SJ: How dare you question his upbringing,
I thought I did a good job.
QT: You know, one thing that need to be said
here is, and it's a shocking thing to contemplate
is; the idea that on the planet earth that
there's just not Anglo-Saxon humans, that
the rest are sub-human—that being proved
to not be the case is a relatively new idea.
The idea of sub-humanity has existed for such
a long time. In fact, Winston Churchill, as
late as 1947; in trying to hold onto the British
Empire in India talked about how we should
not be embarrassed about Angelo-Saxon superiority—it's
just the way it is, and that was Winston Churchill.
This whole idea that there is no such thing
as sub-humans as to humans—I didn't use
animal analogies in this movies because I
already wore that out in Inglorious Basterds,
but they would constantly use, "A horse is
not a donkey, they are sub of this." The idea
that we all think that's bullshit now, is
a relatively, new idea.
JF: And what I hope to happen in your DVD
when you do show all of the things that were
left out—there was a very interesting conversation
in this movie Christianity, or what God deems
to be true. You see it in the movie when the
Brittle Brothers are getting ready to whip
little Jody. Quentin does a fantastic thing
if you're able to catch it—one of the brothers
has bible passages, tacked to his shirt, and
he's saying something from the bible. There
were actually two things going on at that
time; they felt by God that they have dominion
over slaves, slaves that could not read the
bible and had no idea what these people were
preaching. That was an amazing thing to see,
the science and the religion because my question
had always been, just about slavery, "Do slave
masters go to heaven?" We didn't put this
in the movie, but what does Django believe
about God? Does Django have a beef with the
man upstairs? Because the fact is, I was only
born. I didn't have anything to do with being
black, but all of a sudden, all of this is
heaped up on me, so what does Django actually
believe? I think the movie is going to create
a lot of great conversation once everyone
sees it.Let's ne honest, black folks were
just holding their breath when this movie
was about to drop, and then when you see it,
you're like, "Wow, we may not feel 100% great
about everything, but it was amazing, and
it was entertaining." I told them earlier,
Stan Lathan, who we hold in high regard in
his opinion; he's been raving about the film
about how entertaining it was, and how we
got a chance to touch all the bases.
QT: Actually, Leonardo gave me a book, because
we were talking about the phrenology from
a scientific angle, but we were talking about
it coming from a religious angle. He gave
me a book that was called, Negro: Beast of
Man. It wasn't even written in the 1800s,
it was written in like, 1904. I had this book
and it introduced a word to me that I had
never heard before; the adamic man. What the
adamic man means is—their whole philosophy
is, the proof that black folks are sub-humans
to white folks humanity is the fact that—can
it be possible that black folks were the descendents
of Adam & Eve? To them it was positively,
no. Now, what are they using? They're using
the stupid-ass white illustrations that they've
seen in the bible that they actually feel
is photographic evidence. But I hadn't even
heard that expression—adamic man, before.
