AFP - Getty Images file

Will Smith.

Will Smith has a need ... to play the lead. The actor told Entertainment Weekly as much in a recent interview, explaining why he wouldn't take the title role that ultimately went to Jamie Foxx in "Django Unchained."

"Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead," he said. "The other character was the lead!"

Smith is referring to the role of bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz, played by Christoph Waltz. 

He may have a point: Waltz waltzed out of February's Oscars with a trophy (for supporting actor) while Foxx, who would have competed in the lead actor race, was not nominated. But it's hard to imagine that a character whose name is part of the title of the film isn't lead enough for Smith.

Apparently so. Smith revealed that before he left the project, he asked director Quentin Tarantino to give Django more of a role. (Spoiler alert!)

"I was like, 'No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!'" said Smith. (Schultz shoots Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.)

Still, Smith did like the finished film, saying, "I thought it was brilliant. Just not for me."

Smith's newest film, "After Earth," comes to theaters June 7.

Related content:

• Video: Criticism of 'Django' ended up being a good thing
• Video: Christoph Waltz on nominees, 'Django'

Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, “Django Unchained,” about a slave-turned-bounty hunter, doesn’t shy away from violence and language, including 110 uses of the N-word –- something the cast had to come to grips with while filming. 

“These characters use the N-word because that’s what people said back then, and again if you don’t understand how ugly the time is, you don’t understand how bad--- [Django] is to get through this time,” Kerry Washington told Access Hollywood’s Michelle Beadle, referencing Jamie Foxx’s Django character.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Top 10 Movies Of 2012 (MovieMantz)

“There were days when hearing that N-word over and over again would start to get a little uncomfortable and Jaime and I had these imaginary shields… we’d roll up our n-word shield,” she explained.

Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays plantation owner Calvin Candie, uses the word most often, but had trouble going there, according to his co-stars.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood’s Favorite Leading Ladies: Then & Now

“I think that what Quentin wanted to do was really let you know how it really was [during this time] and you’re not supposed to feel good about it,” Foxx said.

Foxx said co-star Samuel L. Jackson helped motivate DiCaprio to immerse himself in the character and his language.

“When Leo goes, ‘Buddy, I’m having a tough time with these words’ and then… Samuel Jackson [told him] ‘It’s just another Tuesday for us, get over that.’ And I told Leo, if you don’t go there then we don’t have a story. So the next day he walked [and] he didn’t even speak to me,” the actor recalled.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Jamie Foxx

Foxx added, “We knew we had to go to a bad place and when I talked to black people about the film and they say they were bothered by the N-word, I said, ‘It’s supposed to, it’s supposed to bother you. Those horrific things that happened to us, is supposed to bother you.’” 

Despite the film’s intensity, Washington stressed the film isn’t just a painful look at a horrific time in our history.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Holiday Movie Preview 2012

“This film is the full ride… you will absolutely laugh, you will cry, you will be afraid, you will fall in love. You get the whole shebang,” she told Access.

“Django Unchained” opens in theaters on Dec. 25.

Related content:

• 'Django Unchained' among Golden Globe nominees
• 'Django,' 'Hitchcock' release irresistible trailers
• Jackson drops F-bomb on 'SNL'

Christoph Waltz as Schultz and Jamie Foxx as Django in "Django Unchained."

Quentin Tarantino’s latest shoot 'em up, revenge spectacle “Django Unchained,” doesn’t come out until Christmas, but Tarantino and the Weinstein Co. have whet our palette with Wednesday's release of the punchy trailer.

Ever since 2007, when Tarantino told The Daily Telegraph that he was looking to shoot a spaghetti Western, expectations have been high for the famous pop-culture-obsessed auteur’s newest film. Will Smith, who Tarantino had initially written the lead role of Django for, declined the part while Sacha Baron Cohen, Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner dropped out just before production. Yet none of this derailed the powerhouse film, which borrowed half its name from Sergio Corbucci’s hyper-violent 1966 Western “Django.”

In the trailer for the new film, Tarantino showcases his usual blend of shockingly gruesome violence, quick wit and charmingly sadistic characters as dentist-turned-bounty-hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) buys the freedom of a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) to help him capture the murderous Brittle brothers. After reaping their bounty, the duo chooses to stay together and head off to rescue Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), who's enslaved by Calvin Candie, a wry plantation owner played by a drawling Leonardo DiCaprio.

As Django transitions from sad man on the chain gang to gun-toting bounty hunter hell-bent on finding his wife, the music changes and the excitement kicks in.

Check it out:

“Gentlemen, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention,” Candie tells Dr. Schultz and Django in the trailer.

The Francophile slave-owner might as well have been talking to those of us who watched the teaser. “Django Unchained,” you have our attention. See you Christmas day.

What do you think of the trailer? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

Related content:

• Why is 'Great Gatsby' being made in 3-D?
• DiCaprio's baby face is an asset
• Did Rose kill Jack by not sharing raft in 'Titanic'?