Samuel L. Jackson Says His Django Unchained Role Was Even More Unhinged — Tarantino Cut the Wildest Moments
Think Stephen in Django Unchained was the worst you’ve seen? Samuel L. Jackson says Quentin Tarantino cut even more monstrous scenes—and he lays out just how far the character really went in a revealing chat with Charlie Rose.
Samuel L. Jackson says the version of Stephen we saw in Django Unchained was the toned-down cut. Which is wild, because Stephen is already one of the most vicious characters Jackson has ever played. Turns out Quentin Tarantino left even darker material on the cutting room floor.
The darker Stephen we never saw
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Jackson said Tarantino deliberately trimmed out Stephen's worst moments. Why? Because the director was worried the audience wouldn't just hate the character — they might come for the actor.
"As wonderful as Stephen is in Django, that's the tame Stephen. [Tarantino] edited out all the really bad things that I did in the movie. He said 'I don't want anybody to kill you.'"
So, yeah — as extreme as Django gets, there was a much nastier cut at some point, and Tarantino pulled back so viewers didn't leave the theater ready to throttle Jackson for playing him.
Jackson on Tarantino, the "racist" label, and why he keeps coming back
Jackson also pushed back on the idea that Tarantino is racist. He called that label nonsense, pointing out that every role Tarantino has written for him — from Pulp Fiction to Django Unchained — has been a blast to play and smartly crafted.
He says Tarantino knows exactly how to write to his strengths and will even shape characters around what an actor does best. Jackson credits his years on stage for helping him lock into Tarantino's style — especially the long, musical monologues — and says the director loves that he can deliver those speeches. Beyond that, their years of collaboration made him a better actor, and Pulp Fiction helped turn him into a Hollywood fixture. Translation: if Tarantino calls, Jackson shows up.
Django's splashy revival of the Spaghetti Western vibe
Django Unchained was Tarantino going full Spaghetti Western — that stylized, swaggering flavor of westerns that exploded in Europe in the '60s and '70s. For a lot of modern moviegoers, Django was their first real taste of it. He layered that throwback style with his usual mix of gonzo violence, pulpy tension, and big character work, and the cast delivered exactly what he was after. The movie rode that combo all the way to the Oscars in 2013, picking up Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay.
- Movie: Django Unchained
- Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Main cast: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson
- Rotten Tomatoes: 87% critics, 92% audience
- Box office: $425 million
- Where to watch (US): Amazon Video