Jamie Foxx Says Movies Contribute to Violence, 'Django Unchained' Cast Disagrees
Jamie Foxx, lead actor in the film Django Unchained, said he believes violence in films has an affect on people's actions.
After the massacre at a Newtown, Conn. elementary school left 20 children and six adults dead, the 45-year-old actor joined with 50 celebrities in an ad campaign to demand a plan to stop gun violence for Demandaplan.org. According to BBC News, Foxx recently spoke out against violence in films, despite the fact his new film features him as a gun-toting slave.
"We cannot turn our back and say that violence in films or anything that we do doesn't have a sort of influence," Foxx said. "It does."
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However, Foxx's fellow film stars feel differently. Quentin Tarantino, director of Django Unchained, said he did not believe his often-violent movies contributed to violent acts.
"I just think you know there's violence in the world, tragedies happen, blame the playmakers," the director said at a recent press stop in New York. "It's a western. Give me a break."
Christoph Waltz, another actor in Django Unchained, agreed with Tarantino and said the media has a larger responsibility to help end violence than films.
"The media's responsibility is greater than the story teller is because... Django is violent, but it's not inspiring violence," Waltz said in a BBC news report. "Because actually to me I find violence... to that degree repulsive. The fact that it looks so impressive is because it's on a big screen."
While Kerry Washington, the actress who serves as Foxx's co-star in the film, did not agree with either side openly during her recent press tour, she did express the importance of speaking about the recent violence taking place in society.
"I do think that it's important when we have the opportunity to talk about violence and not just kind of have it as entertainment, but connect it to the wrongs, the injustices, the social ills," she said.
