“She Wanted To Have It”: Quentin Tarantino Once Defended Roman Polanski’s Rape Of A 13-Year-Old

Recent allegations have painted award-winning Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino as a really not good guy, but audio of a 2003 interview that has resurfaced convincingly show us that this shouldn’t have been a surprise at all.

As reported by Jezebel, Tarantino spent a good portion of a 2003 Howard Stern interview adamantly defending Roman Polanski’s famous sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in 1977, who has firmly stated in interviews that she did not view the incident as consensual. When asked by the TV host why he was supporting a man who raped a 13-year-old, Tarantino replies:

“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.”

Howard Stern and and co-host Robin Quivers reminded Tarantono that not only was Polanski’s victim underage, he had given her alcohol and quaaludes preceding the assault, which led to him saying: “No, that was not the case AT ALL. She wanted to have it and dated the guy… look, she was down with this.”

Here’s the audio of Tarantino’s interview:

The revival of the audio recording comes after Uma Thurman’s traumatic interview with Maureen O’Dowd in the New York Times, in which she details her alleged sexual assault from producer Harvey Weinstein, as well as what can be described as an abuse of power from director Quentin Tarantino on the set of Kill Bill Volume 2.

In the story, she alleges that the director pressured and manipulated her into driving an unsafe car.  The more Thurman protested, the more furious Tarantino became. Footage of the eventual crash is included in the New York Times article.

“The steering wheel was at my belly and my legs were jammed under me,” says Uma Thurman. “I felt this searing pain and thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m never going to walk again’”. The incident left her with a “permanently damaged neck” and “screwed up knees”. The article also shows that Tarantino sided with Weinstein after hearing about the abuse. There was also troubling anecdotes about Tarantino personally strangling and spitting on Thurman while filming Kill Bill.

Tarantino has responded to the article in an exclusive for Deadline, essentially attempting to explain the incidents away. Thurman herself has taken to her Instagram to help clarify her comments on the director.

i post this clip to memorialize it’s full exposure in the nyt by Maureen Dowd. the circumstances of this event were negligent to the point of criminality. i do not believe though with malicious intent. Quentin Tarantino, was deeply regretful and remains remorseful about this sorry event, and gave me the footage years later so i could expose it and let it see the light of day, regardless of it most likely being an event for which justice will never be possible. he also did so with full knowledge it could cause him personal harm, and i am proud of him for doing the right thing and for his courage. THE COVER UP after the fact is UNFORGIVABLE. for this i hold Lawrence Bender, E. Bennett Walsh, and the notorious Harvey Weinstein solely responsible. they lied, destroyed evidence, and continue to lie about the permanent harm they caused and then chose to suppress. the cover up did have malicious intent, and shame on these three for all eternity. CAA never sent anyone to Mexico. i hope they look after other clients more respectfully if they in fact want to do the job for which they take money with any decency.

A post shared by Uma Thurman (@ithurman) on Feb 5, 2018 at 10:15am PST