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was writing a book on Sergio Corbucci, the Italian filmmaker who the actor's reps early in the process. "Jamie's people called me
directed the original 1966 Western Django. Tarantino started one day to see what I thought about the script," he says. "They
churning out a script and soon was inviting Waltz-who won an said they were worried about his brand, and I said, 'In what way?
Oscar for his slithery turn as SS officer Hans Landa inBasterds- Because he's playing a slave? He's the hero of the movie!'"
to his home to read it as he finished, 20 pages at a time. "I'd sit Like Tarantino's last film, Django isn't entirely historically
down at his kitchen table, he'd pour me a drink, and then put the accurate (see sidebar, page 30). "There's historical with a capital
still-warm, just-printed pages in front of me:' recalls Waltz, who H, this almost arm's-length, dusty record of things;' says Tarantino.
grew a thick salt-and-pepper beard for the role. ''.And I'd sit there "But I wanted it to be vital. I wanted it to work as a Western,
reading while he was eyeing me." and I wanted it to work as an adventure film that would be
While Tarantino wrote Schultz expressly for Waltz, he had thrilling and exciting-where you're not being exploitative, but
no one actor in mind for his unshackled protagonist. "Django you're also not pulling any punches about the sexuality and the
was Django," he says. "That's always a pretty exciting place to brutality that was happening at that time."
be as a writer. You're not gilding it towards this actor's strength Some of those punches land hard. Tarantino admits that
or that actor's strength, it's just the character. Then it's 'Let me shooting on location at Louisiana's historic Evergreen Plan-
find somebody to fill this role.'" At one point he met with Will tation raised the emotional stakes. "It's one thing to write a
Smith, news of which spread like a prairie brushfire, but that cotton field full of slaves in the background as Schultz and Don
collaboration ultimately failed to come to fruition. Other promi- Johnson's character have lemonade," he says. "It's another
nent actors also vied for the role. "Terrence Howard is a thing to plant the cotton where it didn't exist before, and then
fantastic actor, and he had some really interesting insight into put 100 black people in the hot sun dressed as slaves picking
the character," he says. ''.And Chris Tucker really got the movie. it, and putting white people on horses yelling at them to do it."
But when Jamie came over to my house and we talked, he was Making the film on land anointed by the blood, sweat, and
just the guy. His voice, the fact that he's from Texas, the fact that tears of actual slaves had an effect on the actors as well. "There
he could already ride, that he has a horse ... he was the cowboy." was something very haunting and profound about shooting
As Django, Foxx charts a full arc from chain-gang slave to those scenes on sacred ground," says Kerry Washington, whose
fearless gunslinger. He's taciturn-a rare trait for a Tarantino character, Broomhilda, is bullwhipped and imprisoned in a
character but not for the genre, where Clint Eastwood could metal hotbox. Despite her Valkyrian namesake, she's much
communicate monologues with merely a grimace and a chomp more of a damsel in distress than Tarantino's earlier heroines-
on his cheroot. Foxx fell for the role immediately. The actor has Uma Thurman's The Bride in Kill Bill, say-but Washington
a history of reaching into his own past for his work, whether it's believes Broomhilda isn't a passive victim. "It was special to me
his time as a high school quarterback for Any Given Sunday or his to be part of a story that allowed for the black female character
classical-piano training for Ray. Django was no different. The in the context of slavery to be the princess, because that just
horse Foxx rides in the film is his own, Cheetah, whom he bought wasn't a fairy tale that black women were afforded."
about five years ago. Growing up in small-town Texas, the star The dragon in this tale is DiCaprio's evil, petulant plantation
says he used to spin little plastic revolvers and dream of playing owner, who rules over a cotton kingdom and finds diversion
the cowboy. ''All that heroic cowboy stuff that you get to watch as in "Mandingo fighting," a blood sport that pits slave against
a kid, I got to do that," he says. Not everyone on Foxx's team was slave in gladiatorial combat to the death. "He was one of the
so confident about the role. Jackson says he received a call from most deplorable, indulgent, horrendous characters I've ever
..

THE FILMS BEHIND THE FILM

1. DJANGO "But it's also in this Lee Van because he starred in a
One of Django Unchainecfs Cleef Western called Sabata." 1966 Western of the same
biggest inspirations was name. Then he cast the
the 1966 original, Ojango. 3. BONANZA actor's real-life daughter
Star Franco Nero has an Michael Landon's character Amber Tamblyn (127 Hours)
extended cameo, and a on the 1959-73 TV Western as "Daughter of a Son of
scene with a proto-KKK Bonanza inspired one of a Gunfighter."
gang echoes one of the Django's costumes. "That
earlier film's plot threads. 'Little Joe' green jacket is 5. THE EMPIRE
a cool, sexy, all-purpose STRIKES BACK
2. TAXI DRIVER jacket," Tarantino says. "So Tarantino drew on many
Martin Scorsese's 1976 we took the Idea of it and sources for the dynamic
classic is one ofTarantino's fitted it to Jamie [Foxx]. between his protagonists.
favorite films, and Christoph And it looked pretty cool." "Schultz ls a bit like Yoda
Waltz's Schultz has an to Django's Luke," he says.
apparatus up his sleeve that 4. SONOFA "But I was also looking at
Riiss TAMBtYN pops a gun into his hand GUNFIGHTER [1966's] Nevada Smith and
KJERON MOORE l't much like the one used by As a clever one-off joke, the relationship between
ES PHILBROOK it:t.
FERNANDO REY Travis Bickle. "Yeah, that's in Tarantino cast Russ Tamblyn Steve McQueen and Brian
'~~
as "Son of a Gunfighter"
Keith." -Keith Staskiewicz
Taxi Driver," says Tarantino.
I