Jamie Foxx Reveals How Samuel L. Jackson Pushed Leonardo DiCaprio to Say Racial Slurs in ‘Django Unchained’

In ‘Django Unchained,’ racial slurs were heavily used to reflect the harsh realities of slavery in the 1800s and make the story authentic. Some actors, like Leonardo DiCaprio, felt uncomfortable saying these words, but director Quentin Tarantino and others like Samuel L. Jackson encouraged them to stay true to the script for the film’s impact.

The movie sparked debates about whether such language was necessary, but many felt it highlighted the brutality of the era.

Jamie Foxx revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio felt uncomfortable saying a racial slur while playing plantation owner Calvin Candie in the movie. DiCaprio admitted to his co-stars, “It’s tough for me to say this.” However, Samuel L. Jackson, who played Calvin’s loyal slave Stephen, stepped in and told DiCaprio to push through, helping him feel more comfortable staying in character.

Samuel L Jackson goes, ‘Say that shit, motherfucker! It’s just another Tuesday. Fuck them.’

Foxx told DiCaprio, “Leo, we are not friends. This is your property, these aren’t humans,” to help him embody his character as a cruel plantation owner. After that, DiCaprio stayed in character and didn’t speak to anyone on set the next day. Samuel L. Jackson defended Quentin Tarantino’s use of racial slurs in films, questioning why people criticize Tarantino but not other directors, saying, “It’s ok for Steve McQueen to use [the N-word] because he’s artistically attacking the system… but Quentin is just doing it to strike the blackboard with his nails? That’s not true.”

He further added, “There’s no dishonesty in anything that [Quentin] writes or how people talk, feel, or speak [in his movies].”

In an interview with Esquire, he called the backlash “bulls***,” explaining, “You can’t just tell a writer he can’t…put the words in the mouths of the people from their ethnicities, the way that they use their words…because then it becomes an untruth; it’s not honest.”

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