Quentin Tarantino Defended Roman Polanski in a 2003 Interview: 13-Year-Old Victim 'Wanted to Have It'
"You can’t throw the word rape around," the director told Howard Stern in a recently resurfaced audio clip.
on Monday, audio from a 2003 interview between Quentin Tarantino and Howard Stern resurfaced. Among the many topics discussed on the show, Stern asked the director about his support for Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, who in 1977 plead guilty to unlawful sex with a minor after drugging and raping 13-year-old Samantha Gailey.
Originally posted to Jezebel, the audio clip features Tarantino coming to Polanski's defense when the radio host asked why Tarantino—and Hollywood at large—supports and embraces "this mad man, this director who raped a 13-year-old." Tarantino replied:
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.
Stern's co-host Robin Quivers chimed in, reminding Tarantino that Polanski gave Gailey champagne and a quaalude—and that she was 13 years old. Tarantino's response suggested that Gailey had consented to sex with the director, who had invited her to pose for photographs he planned to include in an issue of French Vogue that he was guest-editing.
The 2003 interview with Stern is timely enough, however. Tarantino's next film, which is has not begun production, is reportedly set in the summer of 1969 and will focus on the murder of Sharon Tate, Polanski's late wife. Polanski will also play "a key role" in the film, according to Variety reporter Justin Kroll. Leonardo DiCaprio, who previously appeared in Tarantino's Django Unchained, has signed on to star in the film; Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Margo Robbie have all been rumored to co-star.
on Monday, audio from a 2003 interview between Quentin Tarantino and Howard Stern resurfaced. Among the many topics discussed on the show, Stern asked the director about his support for Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, who in 1977 plead guilty to unlawful sex with a minor after drugging and raping 13-year-old Samantha Gailey.
Originally posted to Jezebel, the audio clip features Tarantino coming to Polanski's defense when the radio host asked why Tarantino—and Hollywood at large—supports and embraces "this mad man, this director who raped a 13-year-old." Tarantino replied:
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.
Stern's co-host Robin Quivers chimed in, reminding Tarantino that Polanski gave Gailey champagne and a quaalude—and that she was 13 years old. Tarantino's response suggested that Gailey had consented to sex with the director, who had invited her to pose for photographs he planned to include in an issue of French Vogue that he was guest-editing.
Tarantino: No, that was not the case AT ALL. She wanted to have it and dated the guy and—
Quivers: She was 13!
Tarantino: And by the way, we’re talking about America’s morals, not talking about the morals in Europe and everything.
Stern: Wait a minute. If you have sex with a 13-year-old girl and you’re a grown man, you know that that’s wrong.
Quivers: ...giving her booze and pills...
Tarantino: Look, she was down with this.
The resurfaced audio clip comes on the heels of Uma Thurman's interview with Maureen Dowd in The New York Times, in which the actress reveals she suffered permanent neck damage from a car crash on the set of Kill Bill—a stunt she had asked not to perform despite Tarantino's insistence she shoot the scene herself. Tarantino defended himself in a lengthy interview with Deadline in response.
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