Despite a rollicking trailer, don't expect "Django Unchained" to be nothing but a good time. As star Jamie Foxx told Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday, the film -- about a freed slave seeking revenge on the man who kidnapped his wife -- doesn't take its subject matter lightly.
"This movie is really going land heavy. It's the first Western that acknowledges slavery," Foxx told Kimmel. "In dealing with the slavery aspect of it, for Black Americans -- for our education on what it is -- it's really going to land sincere."
The actor recalled one particularly difficult scenes in "Django Unchained," when his onscreen wife (played by Kerry Washington) is whipped in front of Foxx's Django.
"Kerry Washington, bravely says, 'I want to take the lashings.' We were actually in shack row at the time. Now it's not a real bullwhip, but it's still an impact."
As Washington told HuffPost Entertainment, making the film -- especially the lashing scene -- was incredibly tough.
"We've never dealt with the brutality of this part of American history in this way. And it's one thing to not even want to talk about it, but to actually have to see it -- to go there -- has been hard."
Foxx said that director Quentin Tarantino -- "a cinematic genius," according to the actor -- would play songs while onset to give each scene a particular emotion. For the lashing moment, Foxx added his own contribution.
"When that's about to happen everybody is in a solemn place and I asked for them to place this song from Fred Hammond." The song was "No Weapon" and it made even Tarantino start crying.
"Quentin Tarantino's eyepiece filled up with water," Foxx recalled. "When you watch [the film], it's going to take you through a gamut of emotions."
"Django Unchained" is out in theaters on Christmas Day. Watch Foxx's appearance with Jimmy Kimmel above, and listen to Fred Hammond's "No Weapon" below.