Django Unchained at 10: 7 interesting facts about Quentin Tarantino's movie ft. Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio

Django Unchained is one of Quentin Tarantino's most acclaimed films. The film explores a wide range of themes across genres that include crime, black comedy, and even Spaghetti Western. The film also consisted of some memorable dialogues that have become iconic over the years. This year the film completes 10 years since it was first released in 2012. 

The film followed the story of Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave who is freed and joins forces with a bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to rescue his wife, who has been enslaved by Calvin Candle (Leonardo DiCaprio), a hard-hearted plantation owner. The film also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington and more. Django Unchanged also received several nominations at prestigious awards such as the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs. As the film completes 10 years, here's a look at some interesting facts about the same. 

Will Smith turned down the role of Django 

Will Smith revealed that he turned down the lead role in Quentin Tarantino's Oscar-winning movie Django Unchained because he "couldn't connect to violence being the answer" in the storyline. Smith told GQ in 2021, "I've always avoided making films about slavery. In the early part of my career ... I didn't want to show Black people in that light." Quentin also revealed that he met with Idris Elba, Chris Tucker, Terrence Howard, Michael K. Williams and more before settling on Jamie Foxx. 

Leonardo DiCaprio injured himself on camera

Leonardo DiCaprio played the antagonist in the film and during one memorable scene, the actor slammed his hand on a glass and cut it open, and while he did actually injure himself on camera, the actor kept going and Tarantino also continued to shoot until they wrapped the scene. Leonardo recalled the shooting the scene in an interview and said, "My hand started really pouring blood all over the table. Maybe they thought it was done with special effects. I wanted to keep going. It was more interesting to watch Quentin's and Jamie's reaction off-camera than to look at my hand. We did it bloodied and bandaged for the rest of the movie." 

Quentin Tarantino's most hated character

Director-writer Quentin Tarantino has written some interesting characters in his career and one of them also happens to be DiCaprio's horrific villain, Calvin. Speaking about the character, Tarantino said, Speaking in Playboy, the director said that Candie is "the first villain I've ever written that I didn't like." He further explained that he "hated Candie" and "normally like[s] my villains no matter how bad they are."

Jamie Foxx's horse in Django Unchained

Django Unchained also consisted of a special appearance by someone who is extremely close to Jamie Foxx and it was horse. The horse that his character is seen riding in the film is Foxx's real horse named Cheetah. Speaking about the same, Jamie said, "About four and a half years ago, I got a horse for my birthday and I started riding. And the next thing you know, I run into this cinematic genius, I call him, 'Quentin Tarantino.' He says he has a Western and I said, 'Well, I happen to have my own horse.'" 

Christoph Waltz had turned down Django Unchained

It almost feels impossible to imagine anyone else in Dr. Schultz's role apart from Christoph Waltz. The actor who had previously collaborated with Tarantino to play Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds first turned down the role of Dr. Schultz because he felt it wouldn’t be a challenge until the director persuaded him to take on the role.

Django's glasses have a Charles Bronson connection 

Django Unchained had a lot of influences from classic Westerns. Django's costume was also inspired from a painting called The Blue Boy and the glasses that the character wore were based on the ones worn by Charles Bronson's character in the fantasy western film The White Buffalo. Among the film's other influences, the title character's name also finds its inspiration from Sergio Corbucci’s old spaghetti western Django, which originally starred Franco Nero. 

Frank Ocean had written an original song for the film

Django Unchained featured a mix of classical music and also original tracks from the legendary composer Ennio Morricone. There was also an original song written for the film by Frank Ocean. While the song didn't make it into the film, Tarantino  released a statement explaining what had happened, saying that "Frank Ocean wrote a fantastic ballad that was truly lovely and poetic in every way, there just wasn't a scene for it."

Django Unchained has been considered by several fans as one of the best films directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film's cast and performances made the film an instant success. What was your favourite moment in Django Unchained? Share your thoughts with Pinkvilla in the comments below.