Breaking character: An analysis of Django Unchained

In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, Quentin Tarantino says, “Almost all of my characters are really good actors. They’re always playing a role. They’re always doing some sort of weird undercover thing—they’re pretending to be somebody they’re not. They’re putting on an act of some sort to get what they need done…And they pull it off with complete aplomb.” Django Unchained, Tarantino’s latest piece of exaggerated historical fiction, is filled with characters of this nature: wanted murderers and thieves hiding out as farmers, overseers, and even sheriffs; poor slaves forcing smiles and laughs for their masters; bigoted southerners masking their faces with hilariously inadequate white bags; a bounty hunter masquerading as a dentist, and a freed slave pretending to be a black slaver—all of them using their roles to achieve an end goal.