Leonardo DiCaprio Felt Uncomfortable Portraying His Character In ‘Django Unchained’

A lot of women remember Leonardo DiCaprio from his charming portrayal of Jack Dawson in 1997’s Titanic. However, he has made a complete 180 degree turn in his portrayal of cruel slaveowner Calvin Candie in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

DiCaprio recently sat down in an interview with TODAY. In the interview, he told Willie Geist:

“He’s the most deplorable human being I’ve ever read in a screenplay in my life. He was rotting from the inside. He was, you know, a young Louis the XIV that had been brought into a world of entitlement and lived his life … essentially owning other people.”

Dicaprio said that he was uncomfortable with some of the stuff he had to do for his new role.

There was one thing that made him more uncomfortable than anything else … using the “N” word in the movie. However, he was very professional and took the advice of his fellow co-stars. He said:

“Sam Jackson and Jamie Foxx that said, ‘You really have to go all the way with this man.'”

Celebuzz also recently reported on DiCaprio’s thoughts about his new character.

DiCaprio said:

“You have to play somebody that doesn’t even deem others as human. And you’re working with other actors you respect, and you have to go in there and essentially cut them off and treat them as a subspecies to you. It was a very hard switch to make.

According to Today, Tarantino even said that Candie (the plantation owner, who forces slaves to fight to the death) was the first villain he’d written who he didn’t like. Still, DiCaprio says he had to take the role.

DiCaprio said:

“It was an incredibly colorful character and I just had to … I had to play him.

Django Unchained marks the first project that DiCaprio and Tarantino have done together.

DiCaprio also mentioned his respect for Tarantino in the interview. He said:

“It really takes a director like Quentin Tarantino to say, ‘Look, this is … the time period that I want to do a film about and I want to go to these extremes. And it’s also going to be an incredibly entertaining movie.'”

Here is DiCaprio’s interview with TODAY … enjoy.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy