Like most of Quentin Tarantino’s work, Django Unchained is known for its graphic violence. What sets it apart is the specifically racialized violence of the film, focusing on slavery in the American South. The finished product—which starred Jamie Foxx as Django—was controversial enough on its own. But according to Foxx’s co-star Kerry Washington, the original script was even more brutal, featuring scenes where her character “escaped abuse running naked down the street” and was subjected to a “terrifyingly brutal rape scene.”
In Washington’s new memoir Thicker Than Water (via The Daily Beast), the actor suspects Foxx might have interceded on her behalf right before filming the graphic sequence. “Jamie and Quentin stood in the corner. Both men were looking down at the dirt floor, and as I walked toward them, Tarantino announced that we were all going home. The scene would be cut from the script,” she writes. “Maybe it was something Jamie had said to Quentin days before that had finally seeped in, maybe something shifted for Quentin standing in that cabin. Either way, it was the answer to the prayers I had been whispering on my knees.”
Per an audiobook excerpt from Entertainment Weekly, Washington has nothing but praise for Foxx in her book, calling him “one of the most wonderful lead actors I have ever had the privilege to work with.” She writes with admiration for his abilities and the advice he gave her on set, saying, “Both on screen and off, Jamie is invested in bringing out the best in everyone around him. His generosity, it seems, has no limits.”
Having worked together on both Django and Ray (for which Foxx earned an Academy Award), Washington says she was deeply impacted by Foxx’s leadership style. She shares, “Years later, on the set of Scandal, whenever anybody complimented me on my leadership skills as a number one on the call sheet, I was always sure to credit Jamie for setting the best possible example.”