By Jamie Foxx was confirmed to play the lead in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Spaghetti Western Django Unchained last night. He will join a cast that already includes Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sam Jackson. The movie follows a freed Civil War slave as he goes after a plantation owner (DiCaprio) who has stolen away with his excellently named missus, Broomhilda – a role presently uncast, but linked with Kerry Washington.
Tarantino reportedly spoke with a number of actors for the potentially controversial role, being turned down by Will Smith and Idris Elba (who opted for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim instead) before Foxx agreed. As an avid follower of this movie’s progress – being a big fan of both Sergio Corbucci’s original Django and all of Quentin Tarantino’s work – it’s disappointing to learn that Elba passed, but a huge relief to not get Smith, who seemed althogether too mainstream for what we know of the role. I didn’t mention Foxx as a potential star in my How To Do It last month, but he’s certainly a strong enough actor to make his mark. My worry is that, facially, he looks more like a model than someone who has spent his life getting up from hard knocks, with none of Elba’s grit. Hopefully Tarantino can roughen him up sufficiently – he won’t make much of a vengeance-hungry former slave if he always looks like he’s worrying where his next facial scrub is going to come from.
[via Variety]