S. Samuel
Moviemaker Antoine Fuqua has stepped up and come to the defense of fellow director Quentin Tarantino's new Django Unchained box office hit amid dicey remarks from Spike Lee over its controversial N-word usage.
Although he can respect Spike’s stance, Fuqua said the renowned Hollywood director chose the wrong way to get his point across.
“That’s just not the way you do things,” said Fuqua, speaking on the sidelines of the 17th Capri, Hollywood Film Festival. “If you disagree with the way a colleague did something, call him up, invite him out for a coffee, talk about it. But don’t do it publicly.” “I don’t think Quentin Tarantino has a racist bone in his body,” he said. “Besides, I’m good friends with [Django Unchained star] Jamie Foxx and he wouldn’t have anything to do with a film that had anything racist to it.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
The Training Day director also said the movie’s context supported Tarantino’s usage of the controversial word.
Fuqua continued: “I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t speak about it specifically, but we’re supposed to find some truth in films and if you set a film in the 1850s, you’re going to hear the word ‘n****r,’ because that’s the way they spoke then, and you’re going to discuss slavery because that was part of the reality,” he said. “I want my kids to hear those kinds of words in the right context, so that they’ll know that language is not OK,” Fuqua said. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Despite Fuqua’s support, comedian Katt Williams shared a different sentiment a few days ago.
In between getting out of jail and getting in the middle of a parking lot brawl, Katt Williams took the time to talk to TMZ about “Django Unchained” … and threatened to beat the crap out of Quentin Tarantino if he gets the chance. Williams didn’t voice his opinion in a polite way like Spike Lee did. First he threatened to punch QT in the face, then told us, “Quentin Tarantino thinks he can say the N-word. But I checked with all of Ni**adom and nobody knows where he got his pass from. I hope he didn’t get it from Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Foxx cause they aren’t going to help you when I see you.” (TMZ)
Lee initially hopped onto Twitter to air out his issues with Tarantino’s latest flick.
“American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western.It Was A Holocaust.My Ancestors Are Slaves.Stolen From Africa.I Will Honor Them.,” he tweeted. (Spike Lee’s Twitter)
