Jamie Foxx says he pushed Quentin Tarantino to cut a certain Kerry Washington scene from ‘Django Unchained’
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Foxx said the actors wanted to protect Washington as she prepared to become Olivia Pope on ABC’s “Scandal.”
Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx says he pushed Quentin Tarantino to remove a graphic rape scene from “Django Unchained” because he wanted to protect co-star Kerry Washington as her career was entering a pivotal new chapter.
Foxx revisited the production during the Aug. 25 episode of “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer,” A.V. Club reported. He said Tarantino’s original script included a sequence in which both Django and Broomhilda, played by Washington, were raped.
Foxx said he, Washington and Tarantino discussed protecting her from a scene that would remain permanently attached to her screen image. At the time, Washington was preparing for the launch of ABC’s “Scandal,” where she would become widely known as Olivia Pope.
“Broomhilda and Django get raped. Once we got together, Quentin and I and Kerry—we wanted to protect Kerry Washington. Why? Because movies are forever. Meaning that if there is some bombastic scene, you can’t take it out and it’s forever.”
“We wanted to make sure that we protected Olivia Pope,” Foxx said.
He also recalled pressing Tarantino to make Broomhilda more present throughout the film. Foxx believed Django’s central motivation was his love for his wife rather than an attempt to end slavery, so viewers needed to feel her presence throughout his journey. Tarantino responded by adding moments in which Broomhilda appears in Django’s thoughts and line of sight.
Washington offered a similar account years earlier in her 2023 memoir, “Thicker Than Water.” She wrote that the original script contained a brutal sexual assault sequence that deeply troubled her. Just before it was to be filmed, Tarantino told the actors the scene had been cut. Washington wrote that she wondered whether something Foxx had previously said to the director helped change his mind.
The aforementioned scene was not the only difficult material surrounding Washington’s performance. The finished film still depicted Broomhilda enduring whipping, confinement and other violence associated with slavery.
“Django Unchained” starred Foxx as an enslaved man who gains his freedom and sets out to rescue Broomhilda from plantation owner Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson also starred.
Foxx’s latest account underscores the influence actors can have behind the scenes, even on a film written and directed by a filmmaker known for maintaining tight creative control.