Will Smith has been hard at work promoting his upcoming sci-fi flick “After Earth”, during a recent chat with Entertainment Weekly, which was published on March 25, the “Fresh Prince” turned blockbuster star revealed why he turned down the titular role in “Django Unchained”.
Smith previously said that his schedule was what prevented him from joining Tarantino’s cast. During the Summer of 2012 (ahead of the film’s Christmas 2012 release) Smith told Empire magazine:
"I came really close, it was one of the most amazing screenplays I had ever ever seen. I was in the middle of 'Men In Black 3' and [Tarantino] was ready to go, and I just couldn't sit with him and get through the issues, so I didn't want to hold him up. That thing's going to be ridiculous. It is a genius screenplay."
Now, Smith has elaborated on what exactly he and Tarantino would have needed to discuss.
“Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead. The other character was the lead! I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!’” Still, Smith told EW that he remained a fan of the film. “I thought it was brilliant. Just not for me.”
The question then becomes, is there merit to Smith’s critique of the Best Original Screenplay winning film? The “other character” Smith mentioned refers of course, to Christoph Waltz’ Dr. King Schultz, a performance that won Waltz a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Jamie Foxx, meanwhile, was campaigned as a lead actor during awards season.
However the performances were billed, Smith is not the only one who considered Waltz’ role to be more significant than a supporting turn. In truth, the film ultimately winds up as more of an ensemble than anything else--Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz have meaty roles to rival that of Jamie Foxx’s titular character.
Would the film work had Smith gotten his way and Tarantino had reworked things so that Django was the more dominant force? That we’ll never know. What is certain, however, is that the choice he made to highlight the relationship between Django and Schultz worked brilliantly. It gave the film an almost road movie feel that gave just the right amount of levity to an incredibly dark, controversial and Tarantino-level violent piece.
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