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On Saturday, Uma Thurman‘s New York Times story alleging that she had been assaulted and harassed by Harvey Weinstein and nearly killed due to Quentin Tarantino‘s negligence on the set of Kill Bill unsurprisingly sparked outrage. The disturbing video of the car crash that left Thurman permanently damage told a story all its own, and the details that Tarantino had choked and spit on Thurman for scenes of the film only added to the dark shadow now being cast on the director. In a new interview with Deadline, Tarantino defended himself from the allegations of being “livid” about Thurman not wanting to do the stunt and controversy about him choking and spitting on her, but expressed deep regret for what had happened to Thurman in the crash.
When asked what it was like to watch the footage of the accident, Tarantino got candid about just how traumatizing it was for him:
“Just horrible. Watching her fight for the wheel…remembering me hammering about how it was safe and she could do it… It was heartbreaking. Beyond one of the biggest regrets of my career, it is one of the biggest regrets of my life. For a myriad of reasons.
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. A trust broken over a year of shooting, of us doing really gnarly stuff. Doing really big stunt stuff. I wanted her to do as much as possible and we were trying to take care of her and we pulled it off. She didn’t get hurt. And then the last four days, in what we thought would be a simple driving shot, almost kills her.”
Tarantino also claimed that finding the footage to “present it to Uma” was “literally his happiest day this year”, and that he confronted Weinstein when he learned that he had attacked Thurman. “I made Harvey apologize to Uma,” said Tarantino. “My confrontation was saying, you have to go to Uma. This happened. You have to apologize to her and she has to accept your apology, if we’re going to do Kill Bill together.”
Thurman, for her part, exonerated Tarantino of guilt for the incident in an Instagram post last night, writing that the director had done the “right thing” in handing over the footage knowing full well it would make him look bad, and that she instead held Weinstein and the other producers responsible for the coverup.
While Tarantino may have been cleared by Thurman and spoken his part on the Kill Bill and Weinstein controversies, a 2003 interview with Howard Stern in which he defends Roman Polanski resurfaced last night, and it’s a less-than-good look for the director.
“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.”
Even when reminded by Robin Quivers that Polanski’s victim had not wanted to have sex with Polanski (and had been drugged), Tarantino did not back down:
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.
Tarantino has not addressed his 2003 statements, but it’s safe to say he’s going to have a hard time talking his way out of this one.
