Sony Pictures
In the decade-plus since the release of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, much has been made of the famously improvised scene in which Leonardo DiCaprio sliced his hand open on a glass and continued acting anyway. Over the years, however, the story has been conflated into legend, obscuring the truth about what happened, and whether or not DiCaprio actually rubbed his real blood all over Kerry Washington’s face.
Speaking to Kerry Washington ahead of the release of her new movie Shadow Force, which releases in movie theaters on Friday, May 9, the acclaimed Scandal and Django star confirmed to us that, no, the blood that Leo DiCaprio wiped on her was NOT real.
Leo *did* cut his hand, but it happened prior to her character being introduced to the scene. As a result, Tarantino and the rest of the cast decided to film the scene with both a bloody hand and a non-bloody hand.
Once that was decided, the ever-professional Kerry Washington was ready to take it as far as they needed to.
“He cuts his hand on the glass in the scene and doesn’t stop, keeps going, and we’re all freaking out,” Washington explains.
“[And] I was like, ‘I will never forget this.’ And then we all have a conference where we’re like, ‘What do we do?’ Because the blood wasn’t on the page, the blood was discovered on the day. So once we all talked about it and decided it’s too good to *not* have the option to use it, we’re just going to have to shoot everything, every moment both ways. And then once we decided to implore the fake blood, then there were no limits, obviously within respectful boundaries. But his character doesn’t respect me, so within the artistic boundaries that made sense for everybody there, I was like, ‘Let’s just go for it!'”
You can check out our full interview with Kerry Washington — in which we dive deeper in Django Unchained, her new film Shadow Force, the success of Sinners, signing NDAs for Knives Out 3 and her upcoming Ben Affleck movie Animals — ahead of the release of her new film Shadow Force here:
Alongside Kerry Washington, Shadow Force also stars Omar Sy, Mark Strong, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Cliff “Method Man” Smith. Shadow Force will be released in movie theaters on Friday, May 9 — Mother’s Day weekend. You can check out the official trailer for the film below.