As the winner for Best Original Screenplay at the Golden Globes, Quentin Tarantino knows a thing or two about word choice.
Or does he?
Backstage after his win, reporters once again asked the filmmaker about the controversy surrounding Django‘s use of the epithet. Quentin responded:
“They think I should soften it, that I should lie, that I should massage. I would never do that when it comes to my characters.”
This is not the first time the director has made this point. The movie was set in a time and place where the word was used frequently as the jargon of oppression, and removing it would be whitewashing history.
But what made reporters audibly gasp was that when referring to the N-word, Quentin didn’t say “the N-word”– he said the N-word!
Was this over the line? Obviously he wasn’t using the word in reference to someone, he was discussing language!
Is even uttering the word aloud an offense, regardless of context?
[Image via WENN.]