A RESURFACED AUDIO clip from 2003 has shown Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino defending director Roman Polanski, who was charged with drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
In the clip, Tarantino tells radio personality Howard Stern that statutory rape is “not quite the same thing” as rape and suggests that the 13-year-old girl “wanted” to have sex with Polanski.
He didn’t rape a 13-year-old. It was statutory rape … He had sex with a minor. That’s not rape. To me, when you use the word rape, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down—it’s like one of the most violent crimes in the world. You can’t throw the word rape around. It’s like throwing the word ‘racist’ around. It doesn’t apply to everything people use it for.”
Reminded by Robin Quivers that Polanski’s victim—who had been plied with quaaludes and alcohol before her assault—did not want to have sex with Polanski, Tarantino became riled up.
No, that was not the case AT ALL. She wanted to have it and dated the guy.”
You can here the audio in full here.
Last year, Tarantino spoke out about his longtime collaborator Harvey Weinstein and the mounting accusations of sexual assault against him, telling the New York Times:
I knew enough to do more than I did. There was more to it than just the normal rumors, the normal gossip. It wasn’t secondhand. I knew he did a couple of these things.”
However, in a recently published op-ed with the Times, Uma Thurman describes Tarantino as a volatile manipulator who not only ignored Weinstein’s behavior, but also sided against her following her own assault at Weinstein’s hands. Things turned, she said, on the set of the Kill Bill movies during a scene in which Tarantino demanded she do her own stunts.
She was later involved in a car crash on set.
Harvey assaulted me but that didn’t kill me. What really got me about the crash was that it was a cheap shot.
I had been through so many rings of fire by that point. I had really always felt a connection to the greater good in my work with Quentin and most of what I allowed to happen to me and what I participated in was kind of like a horrible mud wrestle with a very angry brother. But at least I had some say, you know?”
He’s since commented on her comments in an interview with Deadline.
None of us ever considered it a stunt. It was just driving.”
I’m sure I wasn’t in a rage and I wasn’t livid. I didn’t go barging into Uma’s trailer, screaming at her to get into the car.”
He added that the pair “weren’t estranged” but that it took a few years for the “Quentin and Uma” double act to return to what it was.
It affected me and Uma for the next two to three years. It wasn’t like we didn’t talk. But a trust was broken.”
