Jamie Foxx Wanted a ‘Django Unchained’ Scene Cut to Protect Kerry Washington

Quentin Tarantino’s scripts have always carried a reputation for going further than most directors are willing to shoot, and ‘Django Unchained’ was no exception when it first landed in the hands of its cast back in 2011. The 2012 film, which followed a freed man’s mission to rescue his wife from a Mississippi plantation, ultimately became one of Tarantino’s most celebrated and highest-grossing works, earning Christoph Waltz an Oscar and cementing Jamie Foxx’s leading turn as one of the defining performances of his career.

That version of the film, though, wasn’t quite the one Tarantino originally wrote. Foxx has spent over a decade occasionally revisiting the production in interviews, and this week he offered his most detailed account yet of one particular change he pushed hard to make happen before cameras ever rolled.

Speaking on the August 25 episode of the “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer” podcast, Foxx revealed that Tarantino’s original script for ‘Django Unchained’ included a scene in which both his character and Kerry Washington’s character, Broomhilda von Shaft, were raped. According to Foxx, he, Washington, and Tarantino ultimately came together and made the decision to cut it from the film entirely.

“If you read the script, Broomhilda and Django get raped. But once we got together, Quentin and I and Kerry, we wanted to protect Kerry Washington,” Foxx said on the podcast, according to The Daily Beast’s coverage of the episode. He explained his reasoning further, noting that permanent footage carries consequences no actor can ever fully take back. “Because movies are forever. Meaning that if there is some bombastic scene, you can’t take it out, and it’s forever, and you can clip it out of context.”

Timing played a significant role in that decision as well. Washington was preparing to step into her career-defining role as Olivia Pope on ABC’s “Scandal,” which premiered in April 2012, and Foxx said the cast wanted to shield her from a scene that could follow her image indefinitely. “I wanted to make sure that we protected Olivia Pope,” he said.

Foxx also used the conversation to revisit another change he advocated for during production, this time related to how present Broomhilda felt throughout the story. He said he believed Django’s central motivation was rooted in love for his wife rather than any broader mission to end slavery, and argued that audiences needed to feel her presence throughout the film even when she wasn’t physically on screen. According to Foxx, Tarantino responded by adding moments where Broomhilda appears in Django’s thoughts and line of sight.

Washington has previously corroborated a version of this account in her own words. In her 2023 memoir, she described the moment Tarantino informed the cast that a difficult scene would be cut from the script, calling it something she’d been quietly hoping for during production. She has also repeatedly praised Foxx publicly, crediting him in her memoir with helping bring out the best in everyone around him both on screen and off.

Foxx and Washington’s working relationship predates ‘Django Unchained’ by nearly a decade, having first played husband and wife in 2004’s ‘Ray,’ where Foxx portrayed Ray Charles opposite Washington’s Della Bea Robinson. That prior history appears to have shaped the level of trust between them heading into a project as tonally intense as ‘Django Unchained.’

With Foxx continuing to promote his new Hulu stand-up special, “Take Care of Yourself,” set to premiere October 7, this latest revisiting of ‘Django Unchained’s’ production offers fans a clearer picture of just how much behind-the-scenes advocacy shaped the final film audiences ultimately saw in theaters.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!