image source unilad.com
After cutting himself for the "right n***er" scene in Django Unchained, Leonardo DiCaprio said, "We did it bloodied."
Although Quentin Tarantino's films are widely admired, they frequently find themselves at the center of controversy. Tarantino, a Caucasian, was criticized for directing a film about slavery and for 'overusing' the racial slur n***er (reportedly more than 100 times) in his 2012 release Django Unchained, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. Some in the audience felt he was engaging in the "White man's savior complex," the idea that others should look to a white person to do all the hard work and "save the souls." Django actor Jamie Foxx has praised Tarantino for being able to get a movie about slavery made. Tarantino, however, has dismissed these claims.
Django Unchained is an engaging (and often darkly comedic) work of art with fantastic performances and an even better soundtrack, despite its flaws and its traumatic subject matter. Do you remember when Christoph Waltz's and Jamie Foxx's characters were talking to Leonardo DiCaprio, and he cut his hand opens banging the table as he addressed them? In the past, Tarantino has asked the special effects team to go all out with the blood and violence for his films, but this time he decided to hold back.
If you've seen the movie, you'll have some idea of how much blood DiCaprio lost during the take despite the fact that he'd been hurt while performing the act. Leonardo later explained in an interview that the commotion had caused even Tarantino to glance up from the camera and give his star a puzzled look: "My hand started really pouring blood all over the table." Perhaps they figured it was a trick of the lights or some other sort of special effects. I was eager to proceed. Looking at my hand was less interesting than seeing Quentin (Tarantino) and Jamie (Foxxreaction )'s off-screen. For the duration of the film, we were bloodied and bandaged up but we still did it. Actor: "I'm glad Quentin kept it in," quoted in The Hollywood Reporter. A round of applause erupted from the crew as soon as Leonardo finished speaking.
Even if no actual blood was spilled, the event in question had to have been incredibly traumatic for everyone involved. Kerry Washington, who played the slave Broomhilda, told THR, "I was in a constant state of panic. For some reason, it kept coming up in my dreams, and I felt incredibly trapped. In terms of my future plans and actions, I was completely powerless. I started to worry about my sanity. Kerry was 'hot boxed', or placed in a metal coffin for her scenes. While playing the racist Calvin, Leonardo's character dragged him by the hair and verbally abused him.