Leonardo DiCaprio, widely regarded as one of the best performers in the world, has received several honors for his films The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Revenant. The actor, who is known for some of his memorable movie monologues, had a difficult time filming Django Unchained.

On the set of the 2012 picture, Jamie Foxx and Samuel L Jackson had to push their co-star to speak the n-word, according to QT8: The First Eight, a documentary examining filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s career thus far.

‘Leonardo DiCaprio had a problem saying the word “n*****,”‘ Jamie recounted in an exclusive footage published with Metro.co.uk.

Jamie Foxx revealed Leo didn’t want to use the racial slur (Picture: Signature Entertainment)

“It’s tough for me to say this,” DiCaprio told Foxx on set. Samuel Jackson advised DiCaprio to put his worries aside.

‘I remember Samuel L Jackson going, “Get over here, motherf**ker, this is just another Tuesday motherf**ker. I don’t give a f**k about these motherf**kers, look at who I am, motherf**ker.”’

Jamie Foxx went on to say that Leonardo DiCaprio was blank the next day when he arrived on the sets of Django Unchained. Leonardo DiCaprio greeted everyone and stayed completely silent throughout.

It was like… “What’s up Leo? What’s up fam?” He remained silent.

“I said, ‘Leo, we’re not friends … this is your property,’” Foxx said. “‘These aren’t humans [to the character]. These are your property.’” From then, DiCaprio was able to handle his lines with ease.

‘Quentin allowed us to really go back to that time and it was really real.’

On the other hand, Leonardo DiCaprio admitted that he despised his own character in the film, calling him one of the most selfish and prejudiced characters he had ever read.

He added, ‘One of the pivotal moments for me was this initial read through, I wondered if it needed to be this violent and this atrocious to other human beings and it was Sam and Jamie who said, “If you sugarcoat this people are going to resent the hell out of you. You got to push this guy to the outer extreme.”’

Django Unchained is one of Quentin Tarantino’s most celebrated films. The film received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. In addition, the filmmaker won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.