Jamie Foxx had Tarantino cut Django scene for Kerry Washington
Jamie Foxx asked Quentin Tarantino to cut an “outlandish” scripted rape scene from 2012’s Django Unchained to protect co-star Kerry Washington. Speaking on the Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast, Foxx said the original script had both Django and Broomhilda assaulted, but the trio agreed the bombastic material should go because movies last forever.
Key Takeaways
- Jamie Foxx said the Django Unchained script included a rape of both Django and Broomhilda.
- Foxx, Tarantino, and Kerry Washington agreed to cut the “bombastic” material to protect Washington.
- Foxx also pushed Tarantino to expand Broomhilda’s role as the film’s romantic through line.
- Tarantino was “accommodating,” comparing the rewrite to adding ingredients to an omelette.
- Django Unchained later grossed nearly $450 million and became Tarantino’s highest-grossing film.
The Oscar winner’s comments, reported this week in Page Six, add a rare behind-the-scenes note to one of modern Hollywood’s most debated Westerns. For more celebrity breaking news, BlasterPost is covering Foxx’s podcast remarks as they spread.
What scene did Jamie Foxx want removed from Django Unchained?
On the Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast, Foxx, 58, recalled that the script went further than the finished film. “If you read the script, Broomhilda and Django get raped,” he told Palmer.
Washington played Broomhilda von Shaft, Django’s on-screen wife. Foxx said that once he, Tarantino, and Washington sat down together, they shared one priority: protect Kerry Washington from a scene that could define her forever.
“Why? Because movies are forever,” Foxx explained. “Meaning that if there is some bombastic scene, you can’t take it out and it’s forever and you can clip it out of context.”
Why did Jamie Foxx say they needed to protect Kerry Washington?
Foxx framed the cut as career stewardship as much as creative taste. He said he “wanted to make sure that we protected Olivia Pope,” nodding to Washington’s later Scandal role—even though the ABC series had not yet aired when Django Unchained was being shaped.
“I said, ‘Hey, she’s going to have this show and we want to protect her,’ and [Tarantino] was with it. So all of that sort of outlandish stuff left,” Foxx shared. Tarantino, 63, agreed to drop the material.
How did Tarantino change Kerry Washington’s role after the cut?
Foxx also told Tarantino that “his woman” was not in the script enough. The Pulp Fiction director, Foxx said, immediately leaned into the note.
“Quentin goes, ‘Yeah, it’s an omelette. It’s an omelette and all these ingredients. I’m going to throw some more of Broomhilda,’” Foxx recalled. Scenes in which Washington is “sort of in his eyes,” he said, were not in the original script.
“He placed Kerry Washington to make sure it was the through line. So that Django was a guy going to get love in the worst circumstance,” Foxx added. He praised Tarantino as “accommodating” throughout the rewrite.
Django Unchained follows an enslaved man who trains under a German bounty hunter to reunite with his wife. The film drew controversy for racial language and depictions of violence against enslaved people, yet it still became Tarantino’s top earner, grossing nearly $450 million worldwide, and was reported as the highest-grossing Western of all time.