Will Smith Gets Candid About Why He Turned Down Django Unchained! And He References The Paris Attacks In His Response!

Most Quentin Tarantino fans know that Will Smith was the first choice to play the revenge seeking former slave in the 2012 hit Django Unchained!
The Concussion star has always been a bit vague about why exactly he turned down the role of the titular character — which was eventually portrayed by Jamie Foxx — until now!
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Speaking at The Hollywood Reporter‘s Actors Roundtable, the 47-year-old explained that he and Tarantino had different visions of what they wanted the story to be about!
When asked about being offered the role in Django, Smith said:

“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 the greatest love story that African-Americans had ever seen.”

That would certainly be a compelling love story — if a completely different director was helming the film! LOLz!
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Smith stuck with his guns and tried to come to an agreement with the Hateful Eight filmmaker, but it just didn’t happen! He added:

“We talked, we met, we sat for hours and hours about it. 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. I don’t believe in violence as the reaction to violence. So when I’m looking at that, it’s like: ├óΓé¼╦£No, no, no. It has to be for love. We can’t look at what happens in Paris [the terrorist attacks] and want to f*ck somebody up for that. Violence begets violence. So I just couldn’t connect to violence being the answer. Love had to be the answer.”

He has a point — the answer to violence shouldn’t be more violence! Certainly not in real life anyway.
But pretty much all of Tarantino’s films are about bloody vengeance, so we aren’t quite sure what the actor expected in this case.
Can YOU imagine Django Unchained as a straight-up love story?
[Image via IPA/WENN.]