Actress Digs Up Her Past As She Prepares to Play Slave in Tarantino Fil

19th January 2012

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Daniele Watts' new role in Quentin Tarantino's new film Django Unchained has prompted the young star to seek out more about her own familyhistory.

Watts has been cast as Coco in the much-anticipated, all-star movie andshe has discovered her great-grandparents were slaves and that she has arich ancestral history related to the African-American struggle.

My dad is really big on that (genealogy) and he has talked with me about great-grandparents who were slaves, but it's all sort of muddy

The actress admits the preparation she has been doing before joining the cast in New Orleans, Louisiana has been fascinating.

She tells WENN, "I come from a theatre background so a lot of my preparation is research... I've played other roles where I'm playing characterswho are living during the time of slavery and the research is really interesting.

"I've visited my family in Atlanta and we drove down to Alabama and I'll be driving to Mississippi, where my family is from, to soak it in about what it was like to have been there.

"My dad is really big on that (genealogy) and he has talked with me about great-grandparents who were slaves, but it's all sort of muddy.

I knowthat part of my family was Creek Indian and I know that many of my family is buried at a Watts family cemetery in Mississippi".