Will Smith could have been Django.
In a roundtable interview with other actors for The Hollywood Reporter, the actor revealed that he was offered the role, liked it, but couldn’t commit to the project.
“It was about the creative direction of the story,” Smith said about Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino’s violent but redemptive story about a slave, ultimately played by Jamie Foxx, who, with the help of a bounty hunter, Christoph Waltz, rescues his enslaved wife from an abusive slave owner. “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. That idea is perfect. And it was just that Quentin and I couldn’t see [eye to eye].
Ironically, Smith was sitting opposite Samuel L. Jackson who appeared in the film and has starred in a number of Tarantino movies, including the cult classic Pulp Fiction.
“We can’t look at what happens in Paris [the terrorist attacks] and want to f**k somebody up for that. Violence begets violence.
The blood bath certainly would have been a departure for the father of three and husband of actress Jada Pinkett-Smith. Though the actor has taken on a variety of roles and has even been Oscar-nominated, his outgoing public personality and family man persona have perhaps been the most important factors in his Hollywood success.
“I just couldn’t connect to violence being the answer. Love had to be the answer.” Fair enough, Will, fair enough.
Image via Flickr/Walmart, resized
