Quentin Tarantino doesn’t sweat complaints about his films from critics, but even the celebrated auteur was taken aback by the response he got from those who weren’t unhappy with “Django Unchained,” a Western about a former slave taking on a deranged plantation owner.
“In a lot of the more ugly pieces, my motives were really brought to bear in the most negative way,” Tarantino told the New York Times. “It’s like I’m some supervillain coming up with this stuff.”
”If you sift through the criticism, you’ll see it’s pretty evenly divided between pros and cons. But when the black critics came out with savage think pieces about ‘Django,’ I couldn’t have cared less,” he said.
“If people don’t like my movies, they don’t like my movies, and if they don’t get it, it doesn’t matter,” he continued “The bad taste that was left in my mouth had to do with this: It’s been a long time since the subject of a writer’s skin was mentioned as often as mine. You wouldn’t think the color of a writer’s skin should have any effect on the words themselves.”
But Tarantino doesn’t plan on shying away from controversial material anytime soon, like in his upcoming film “The Hateful Eight.”
”This is the best time to push buttons,” he said. ”This is the best time to get out there because there actually is a genuine platform. Now it’s being talked about.”