Jamie Foxx Was Afraid Of Django Unchained's Stunts Despite Riding Horses In Real Life
Quentin Tarantino was coming off of a hot streak when he released "Django Unchained" back in 2012. The follow-up to his Oscar-nominated World War II revenge epic, "Inglourious Basterds," the film starred Jamie Foxx as an ex-slave on the warpath of vengeance in hopes of saving his beloved wife from torture and death at the hands of sadistic slave owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo Dicaprio).
Though "Django Unchained" courted some controversy, Foxx downplayed the backlash with regard to the film's supposed impropriety, and the movie was generally well-received with plenty of praise for its performances, including that of Foxx's Django. However, if you'll hear it from the man himself, he was terrified during the shooting of at least one of the scenes in the Western.
According to Hollywood, Foxx had a pretty scary time riding horseback for "Django Unchained," despite being a seasoned rider in his day-to-day life. "The only thing that was scary was riding bareback on the horse because the horse was used to the stunt person," the actor explained. "They built this dirt track, and I got on the back of the horse, and there were people at the end with their sleeves rolled up, ready to catch me."
Jamie Foxx used his own horse, Cheetah, for the movie
This fear remained palpable during the shooting of this scene, which required Jamie Foxx to ride at high speeds with no saddle. While the actor says he may have looked confident, he was actually pretty frightened beneath this calm facade. "On the outside, I look like Django, but on the inside, I was like Little Richard screaming, 'Lord Jesus, please stop this horse!'" Foxx recalled.
All of this is in spite of the fact that the actor brought his own horse on set to film these scenes. Foxx was able to convince Quentin Tarantino to allow him to use his personal horse, Cheetah, for his riding scenes in "Django Unchained." However, it sounds like Cheetah took to the high-speed action of the shoot a bit better than Foxx himself did.
"This time, the horse takes off again, only this time I'm on the side of the horse, and the stunt guy, Dash, says, 'If you feel like you're gonna come off the horse, just let go of the son of a b***h, just get off,'" Foxx went on. "Those words are ringing in my head as I'm hanging off the side going 28 miles an hour, thinking, 'he's a damn fool!'" For his part, Tarantino seemed to appreciate Foxx's trust, however, and commended him for his work on "Django Unchained." "That is one of my top three Django shots," the writer-director told the actor.