'I Need to Be the Lead': Why Will Smith Turned Down 'Django Unchained'

Back when Quentin Tarantino had begun casting Django Unchained, it looked like Will Smith was going to play Django. Yes, the star of family friendly fare like Men in Black and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was possibly going to work with a director known for profanity and huge amounts of bloody, bloody violence. Before this could become a reality, the possibility fell apart, and Tarantino went with Jamie Foxx instead. Why did Smith pass on the role? Well, thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we now have an answer. Smith thought Django was a supporting role, and Smith doesn't do supporting roles.

“Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead. The other character was the lead!” says the Men in Black star, whose departure opened the door for Jamie Foxx to play the role.  

Smith says that before he left the project, he even pleaded with Tarantino to let Django have a more central role in the story. “I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!’” (Ironically, Waltz was considered a supporting actor during his Oscar-winning award season, while Jamie Foxx was promoted as the movie’s lead.)

What a diva.