NEW YORK — While promoting his latest film “Django Unchained”, Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Jamie Foxx,
found himself compelled to comment on the Newtown, Conn. elementary school massacre.
Friday, a gunman mortally wounded his mother and then went to an elementary school,
where he killed six adults and 20 children before committing suicide.
Foxx, said Saturday as he promoted the upcoming ultra-violent spaghetti Western-style film of
Quentin Tarantino, “…actors can’t ignore the fact that movie violence can influence people.
We cannot turn our back and say that violence in films or anything that we do doesn’t have a
sort of influence. It does.”
In true Tarantino form, buckets of blood explode from characters as they are shot or shredded
to pieces by rabid dogs in “Django Unchained.”
Despite Friday’s mass shooting, promotion for the film, which opens in theaters
Christmas Day, continued in New York as scheduled on Saturday.
Tarantino, whose credits include “Pulp Fiction” and the “Kill Bill” volumes, said he was tired
of defending his films each time the nation is shocked by gun violence. He said “tragedies happen” and blame should fall on those guilty of the crimes.
Foxx’s co-star Kerry Washington said she believes the film’s explicit brutality serves an
important purpose in educating audiences about the atrocities of slavery.
“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.
