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Will Smith wasn’t a fan of director Quentin Tarantino’s artistic choice of violence.
A resurfaced interview has revealed that Smith, 53, turned down the role of Django Freeman in the “Pulp Fiction” filmmaker’s 2012 movie “Django Unchained.”
A 2015 roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter has re-emerged following the controversy surrounding Smith and his act of disorder at the Oscars on March 27. The “King Richard” star slapped and cursed at presenter Chris Rock on stage during the ceremony after the comic made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her bald head.
The actor and R&B singer — who was interviewed alongside screen legends Mark Ruffalo, Benicio Del Toro, Joel Edgerton, Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Cain — noted that while he was interested in the story, he said no to playing Django because he “couldn’t connect to violence being the answer” in the story.
The movie followed Django — a part ultimately filled by Jamie Foxx — and bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) as they take on a journey to save the former’s wife, Broomhilda von Shaft (Kerry Washington).
“I had said yes to Django, but it was more about the creative direction of the story,” Smith said of initially giving it a thumbs-up. “To me, it’s as perfect a story as you could ever want. A guy that learns how to kill to retrieve his wife that has been taken as a slave.”
But Smith — now infamous for yelling “Keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth!” at Rock after his slap — apparently had deep reservations about the violence, adding that he met and spoke with Tarantino about his internal dilemma.
“I wanted to make that movie so badly, but with that story, I felt the only way I could make that movie is it had to be a love story, not a vengeance story,” the father of three recalled.
“When I choose movies, I’m choosing the arc. I read the first 35 pages and I read the ending. And to me that idea is perfect,” he continued. “And it was just that Quentin and I couldn’t see [eye to eye]. I wanted to make the greatest love story that African Americans had ever seen from American cinema.”
Interestingly, the “Bad Boys” alum expounded further about how “love” should play into portraying violence.
“I don’t believe in violence as the reaction to violence. So when I’m looking at this, it’s like, ‘No, no, no. It has to be for love. That’s the only way he can retrieve his love is to do this. He can’t want to be this. No, no, no.’
“Violence begets violence. For me, I just couldn’t connect to violence being the answer, he continued. “Love had to be the answer.”
Smith won the Oscar for Best Actor at the awards telecast last month and the Academy is reportedly “split” on whether they should revoke his golden statuette.
The organization had moved up its board meeting to Friday, April 8, instead of April 18 to discuss Smith’s actions.
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