The “D” Isn’t Silent – Interviewing the Cast of Django Unchained

In the world of movie junkets, where you sit down and try to distill the art of interviewing into 4 minute segments, you often only get a few seconds of ice-breaking time: “Hello, Mr Jackson, South Africa, yes. No, Johannesburg.” 

In the 30 seconds before walking into the room where my interview with Quentin Tarantino would be taking place, I thought it would be funny to play on the film’s tagline – The ‘D’ is Silent – with my own take on it. Hey, it couldn’t be worse than most encounters I have when I say my surname – just look at the face Jamie Foxx made when he heard it for the first time:

Anyway, so I thought I’d focus on the “Nadia” part of my name, and walked into the room, extending out my hand, and shaking Tarantino’s as I introduced myself:

“Nadia, from South Africa,” I said.

“Nadia,” he repeated. “Yes,” I continued…”The ‘D’ isn’t silent.”

And then I cracked up laughing, backtracking to the 30 seconds when I thought it was a good idea. The cameras weren’t rolling for the introduction itself, but they captured the director’s response to me after I started laughing about how lame my attempted cool streak was. Uma Thurman, I am not.

Ah well, I’m lucky. You saw what happened to the Channel 4 broadcaster, right?

Here, then, my interview with Tarantino and the cast of Django Unchained, from DSTV:

Django Unchained releases in South Africa this weekend.