In light of Will Smith’s slapping incident at the Oscars a few weeks back, many past moments are being brought up and reexamined in a new light. One particular moment is Smith’s reveal that he turned down a role in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
Smith’s reasoning at the time is why the moment is garnering some interest following the slap. According to a 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Smith revealed that he had initially said yes to starring in the film but changed his mind.
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“I had said yes to Django, but it was more about the creative direction of the story,” Smith said during an actor’s roundtable that included Django star Samuel L. Jackson among other legendary actors. “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.”
Smith goes on to say he chooses movies for the arc of the character, reading the beginning and ending before hitting some roadblocks with Tarantino. “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,” Smith said. “We met. We talked. We sat for hours and hours and hours about it. 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.”
All of this doesn’t paint a poor picture of Smith, just some creative differences. It’s not until he goes on about his view on violence that folks are likely having alarm bells going off in their heads.
“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,’” Smith said. “Violence begets violence. For me, I just couldn’t connect to violence being the answer. Love had to be the answer.”
There was little question Smith was speaking from the heart at the time. But now, many have doubts in hindsight after his Oscar’s outburst and the aftermath. The Academy banned Smith from all Oscars events for ten years on Friday. He also resigned from The Academy himself before their decision.
