Watch Jamie Foxx’s remarkable impression of Quentin Tarantino
The iconic American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is known for working with some of the greatest actors of all time, including Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Uma Thurman, with every collaboration being as memorable as the last. One such cinematic meeting came in 2012 when Tarantino worked with actor Jamie Foxx for the slave drama Django Unchained, co-starring Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson.
A violent revenge film concerning a freed slave who sets out to rescue his wife from a plantation with the help of a German bounty hunter, Django Unchained addresses the slave trade of the 15th century with Tarantino’s familiar flair. In part inspired by blaxploitation cinema, as well as Sergio Leone’s iconic westerns starring Clint Eastwood, the much-discussed movie claimed two Academy Awards in 2013, including Best Original Screenplay.
Whilst the movie has a number of terrific performances, it is Foxx who undoubtedly steals the show, playing the title character with gusto and natural charm. Still, filming the movie was no walk in the park, with the actor talking to Howard Stern to discuss how Tarantino was meticulous in his directorial style.
“He was a tyrant. ‘Do not fuck my film up,’” Foxx told Stern, approaching his Django character with a swagger similar to other 20th-century stars such as Ron O’Neal, Fred Williamson and Richard Roundtree. Tarantino wasn’t too happy with this style, however, with Foxx further stating: “He said, ‘Cut, can I talk to you for a second, close the door. What the fuck is that?’” whilst Foxx was bemused at his response.
Doing a remarkable impression of the idiosyncratic film director, Foxx adopted the persona of Tarantino, stating: “‘I knew I was going to have this problem, listen, all of this shit, you have to be a fucking slave okay? He’s a slave. He’s not cool. He’s a fucking slave. He doesn’t know how to read. You come in with your fucking Louis bag and your fucking Range Rover and your fucking jets. You’re not Jim Brown. He’s a fucking slave. And then, he becomes the hero. But lose that shit’”.
Jam-packed with high-profile names, Foxx joined an impressive lineup that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington and many more. Such has become a trend in the films of Tarantino, with his most recent movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, featuring Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Kurt Russell, Austin Butler, Margaret Qualley and Al Pacino, among others.
Discussing his project back in 2012, Tarantino commented: “To do movies that deal with America’s horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like Spaghetti Westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they’re genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it’s ashamed of it, and other countries don’t really deal with because they don’t feel they have the right to.”
To appreciate quite how great Jamie Foxx’s impression of Quentin Tarantino is, watching his interview with Howard Stern below is imperative.
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