In a roundtable discussion with The Hollywood Reporter, Will Smith revealed that he was offered the titular role in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, but the two didn’t have the same vision for the film. Here’s what the actor had to say:
“It was about the creative direction of the story. To me, it’s as perfect a story as you could ever want: a guy that learns how to kill to retrieve his wife that has been taken as a slave. That idea is perfect. And it was just that Quentin and I couldn’t see [eye to eye]. I wanted to make that movie so badly, but I felt the only way was, it had to be a love story, not a vengeance story.”
Smith went on to say that he wanted to make the greatest African-American love story that American cinema had ever seen. While that’s very noble, unfortunately Tarantino doesn’t make love stories, he makes vengeance stories. It’s too bad, because as good of a job Jamie Fox did, it would have been nice to see Smith sink his teeth into a Tarantino script.