Tarantino goes Aussie in spaghetti western Django Unchained
QUENTIN Tarantino speaking in an Aussie accent? Bloody oath, mate.
The renegade American writer-director of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds randomly pops up as a character in his films and, in his new spaghetti western-inspired movie Django Unchained, he briefly appears on screen as an Aussie.
Tarantino, born in Knoxville, Tennessee, is a lover of Australian film and, in only his madcap way, decided it would be "cool" to slot in a couple of Aussie characters in Django Unchained, set in America's south in 1859 - two years before the start of the US Civil War.
"Initially I wanted it to be a cool little collection of all of those cool Aussie guys from the 70s like John Jarratt and Steve Bisley," Tarantino said in New York.
"I thought that would be really cool."
Tarantino hired Jarratt (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, A Country Practice and McLeod's Daughters) to be one of three Aussie miners who transport Django, a freed slave turned bounty hunter played by Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, to a brutal mine where slaves are worked until they die.
Tarantino also plays an Aussie miner. The third miner is another Tarantino favourite, American actor Michael Parks.
"The Aussies were actually indentured servants themselves," Tarantino said, explaining why they are in the film.
"The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company paid for their passage from Australia to here (US) and they had to work for three to four years to pay them back for them to be free.
"Django prods the guy and finds that out and says 'Shit peckerwood, you a slave too. They just bought you for a boat ride. At least they didn't charge us for the boat ride'."
Django Unchained opens in Australian cinemas on January 24.
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