Tarantino explains Australian cameo in Django Unchained after Oscars win

Quentin Tarantino has finally explained his awful Australian accent in his ‘Django Unchained’ cameo – revealing that dialogue between the character and Jamie Foxx’s Django was cut from the script.

Check out the video above to hear Tarantino relive the scene in character (skip to around the 4.10 mark).

Warning: it will make you cringe.

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The director was doing press backstage after picking up an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay at this Sunday’s Academy Awards, when an Australian journalist (awkward) asked Quentin about his decision to include an the character in the film.

Queue an impromptu reenactment, featuring very dodgy accents, of the original scene Django convinces three LeQuint Dickey Mining Co. employees (including Tarantino’s Aussie) to let him go:

Django: So you work for the LeQuint Dickey Mining Co. don’t ya?

Australian Miner: Yeah.

Django: Well I know how much I’m getting paid - how much are you getting paid? Like for instance how much are you getting paid for the day?

Australian Miner: You know Black it don’t work like that. LeQuint Dickey pay for my passage from Australia to here, and then I get paid and I send a little back home for the family. That’s how it works. I pay ‘em back for the boat trip.

Django: Well how long have you been working for LeQuint Dickey?

Australian Miner: About three years.

Django: Three years! And you ‘int paid ‘em back yet? Shit peckerwood you a slave too! You even got bopped for the price of a boat ride. Least they didn’t charge us for the boat ride!

The scene was widely criticised for being over-long, and even needless, derailing the momentum of the film. Tarantino’s pan-world accent in particular was targeted for being genuinely unidentifiable to most ears. However rumour had had it the director was forced to attempt an Aussie tone, as he couldn’t pull of a Southern Drawl.

But now at least we have Quentin’s reasoning behind his Australian accent. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t explain why it’s so bad.