In the resurfaced radio interview, Tarantino claimed that the 13-year-old girl, who had sex with Roman Polanski, ‘’wanted to have it’’, and that it wasn’t a rape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOEvXPzrCP0
In a 2003 radio interview of the Pulp Fiction director with DJ Howard Stern, Quentin Tarantino has drawn fire from all sides by claiming that in his eyes, Roman Polanski wasn’t a rapist. Instead, he further commented that the 13-year-old girl just ‘wanted to have it’ as he was looking ‘to party with Roman’.
The interview has come days after Quentin Tarantino faced criticism from Uma Thurman of the way he subjected her to perform a dangerous stunt on the sets of Kill Bill. Thurman said in an interview to NY Times that involving herself in the car-crash stunt was one of the ‘’biggest regrets’’ of her life, further suggesting that it was Tarantino who ‘’persuaded’’ her to do the scene.
As for the interview which was republished on the website Jezebel on Tuesday night, Tarantino could be clearly heard defending Polanski: “He didn’t rape a 13-year-old girl. 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.”
As the exchange wore on, Tarantino agreed with Stern that the act was illegal and that if any man had sex with his 13-year-old daughter, provided he had one, he’d ‘’beat the hell’’ out of him. Still, he stuck to his point that the act wasn’t rape, and that the girl involved was a ‘’party girl’’.
After his comments resurfaced, a large amount of Twitter users started criticizing Tarantino for his remarks. Anthony Rapp, the man who alleges that back when he was a child actor, Kevin Spacey made a sexual advance towards him, was the most vocal of critics.
Oh man. This is gruesome. https://t.co/wqmdxaYyve
— Anthony Rapp SAG-AFTRA National Board Member (@albinokid) February 6, 2018
Julia Bradbury, a presenter on British Television, claimed that comments such as Tarantino’s are the reason why woman suffer in silence and do not speak out openly against abusing men.
And this is why women & young women are fearful speaking out against men who abuse them: #QuentinTarantino "his version sounds more likely" /" she was down with it' . Said in 2003 regarding the sexual assault of 13yr old girl by Roman Polanski in 1977. https://t.co/Z1cmPOPxYa
— Julia Bradbury I HAVEN'T BOUGHT BLUE TICK💙 (@JuliaBradbury) February 6, 2018
Similar critique came from Melissa Silverstein, the co-founder of Woman and Hollywood, an advocacy group that calls for gender equality and diversity in Hollywood, who called his comments ‘’horrible’’.
THIS IS JUST HORRIBLE- Quentin Tarantino is literally the worst.
When Howard Stern is the voice of sanity, you know you are in trouble. https://t.co/jSDHWWU3p2— Melissa Silverstein (@melsil) February 6, 2018
Roman Polanski, meanwhile, remains in Switzerland whose government has rejected repeated requests of the US Government to extradite him.
