Quentin Tarantino didn’t just write Calvin Candie. He despised him. In fact, he once admitted he had a “really weird” relationship with the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained. The man who gave the world Hans Landa, Bill, and Stuntman Mike found himself staring at a villain he couldn’t stand. And yet, he couldn’t look away.
Tarantino always had a flair for crafting twisted yet magnetic villains. From Inglourious Basterds’ Hans Landa to Kill Bill’s Deadly Vipers, his bad guys felt layered, even likable in a strange way. They were evil, sure, but they had charm, humor, and even depth. Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, became a pop culture sensation for that very reason.
But Calvin Candie? He just felt different. Speaking on the ReelBlend podcast, Tarantino peeled back the curtain on his process and revealed something unusual: “I had a very weird relationship with the character he played, Calvin Candie. Because all my villains, every single villain I’ve ever created, I’ve always kind of had sympathy for. I always liked to some degree. Even Hans Landa. I could see his point of view. I like the guy. Bad, but I got it. Christoph makes him likable.”
Candie, however, pushed all the wrong buttons. Quentin Tarantino hated writing him and admitted he couldn’t find a single redeeming thread to hold onto. “Calvin Candie was different from the rest of them. I kind of detested the character. I really, really hated him. It was weird to write a character that I hated and kind of feel that way about the character. Because of that, I thought he was a substandard character.”
But then came Leonardo DiCaprio. While Tarantino struggled to connect with Candie, DiCaprio saw something more. He dove into the role with unsettling enthusiasm. Tarantino, at first, thought the actor had been duped. “When Leo was really into it, I thought I was kind of buffaloing him a little bit,” he said. “I thought, ‘This character is not as good as he thinks it is.’ I’m not going to set him straight! (Laughs). I’m thinking, ‘He ain’t all that.’”
Yet DiCaprio transformed what Tarantino thought was a “lesser character” into something haunting. Through subtle choices, icy charm, and raw cruelty, he injected ambiguity where none existed on the page. “To me, he was without ambiguity, which makes him a lesser character. But, we did a really good job of filling in everything. And Leo brought ambiguity to the piece,” Tarantino concluded in the podcast.
Even though Christoph Waltz walked away with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, many fans believed DiCaprio should have snagged a nomination, too. Calvin Candie wasn’t just vile. He was unforgettable. And maybe that’s what made Tarantino’s bond with him so strange. He hated the monster he created but couldn’t look away thanks to Leonardo DiCaprio!
