The Los Angeles Times has an excellent profile of Django Unchained star Kerry Washington. It has a ton of good stuff, like that she studied anthropology and psychology in college and that she went back to her textbooks to prepare for her role as Broomhilda in Django.
First, why make this movie?
“I know it’s not the most feminist idea to be a woman in a tower wanting to be rescued, but for a woman of color in this country, we’ve never been afforded that fairy tale because of how the black family was ripped apart [during slavery]. I really saw the value of having a story that empowers the African American man to do something chivalrous for the African American woman, because that hasn’t been an idea that has held women back in the culture — it’s something we’ve never been allowed to dream about.”
She goes on, touching on Quentin Tarantino’s handling of slavery in the film.
“We’ve had a tradition of romanticizing slavery in film, and I thought this was a phenomenal opportunity to go into a creative exploration of this violent, awful, evil, sinful time period with a director who is not intimidated by violence and gore and exploring the evil side of the human spirit.”
Nailed it. That’s one of the things that makes this film so amazing. That mix of the brutality of slavery with a lighter tone. It’s quite the juggling act.
She went above and beyond for the role as well. Her character is whipped in the film, and although the actor playing her overseer used a fake whip she insisted that the lashings actually hit her. Not only that, but she wanted to be in the hot box naked before they started shooting so she could really feel the horror.
“When I got there, it felt that it would be disrespectful to fake it. I have to honor the truth of what happened here to the best of my ability.”
Noble, but all that truth took its toll. For the first time in her career, she called her family to join her on the shoot.
“I felt like if it had gone on a week longer, I would have lost my mind. I never let my people come visit me on set. I think it’s terribly distracting. I don’t enjoy it but I asked [them] to come down because I was concerned for my sanity.”
She certainly did an excellent job. Two of her brutal scenes are made to feel more terrifying and horrid on her performance alone. Bravo, Kerry Washington. [Los Angeles Times]
