Samuel L. Jackson urged Leonardo DiCaprio to say racial slurs for Django Unchained
Written by worldOneFm on January 24, 2025
Samuel L. Jackson pushed Leonardo DiCaprio to say the racial slurs in the Django Unchained script when he was reluctant to do so.
In Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 revisionist Western, the Titanic star played Calvin J. Candie, a plantation owner who had many slaves, including Jackson’s character Stephen.
The script called for Candie to use the N-word and DiCaprio felt uncomfortable doing so until his co-stars Jackson and Jamie Foxx convinced him that the offensive word was in keeping with the character.
In a career retrospective video for Vanity Fair, Foxx recalled, “The subject matter – the N-word, specifically – Leo had a hard time saying the N-word. We’re doing a read and Leo says, ‘Hey, guys. Cut! I just can’t do this. This is not me.'”
Remembering Jackson’s response, he continued, “Samuel L. Jackson goes, ‘Say that s**t, motherf**ker! It’s just another Tuesday. F**k ’em.'”
The Oscar-winning actor offered his co-star some advice and pointed out that a slave owner would have used the N-word at the time.
“I told Leo, I said, ‘Leo, you know, in slavery days we would never talk to each other so I’m not your friend. I’m not Jamie Foxx. I’m Django,'” he shared. “And I told him, you won’t be able to play that character unless you really understand what slavery is about. It was tough. It was horrific. Ain’t no kikiing with slaves.”
Foxx’s advice paid off as it helped DiCaprio become more like his character on set.
“So the next day I see Leo. He walks in, I said, ‘Leo, what’s up? L, what’s up?’ He don’t speak to me. He’s ready. Everybody started digging in,” he recounted.
Foxx played the titular character, a bounty hunter who goes to Candie’s plantation to rescue his enslaved wife Broomhilda.
