Hateful Eight star Walton Goggins talks Confederate flag removal in Charleston

Quentin Tarantino and seven members of The Hateful Eight were at Comic-Con over the weekend promoting the Western, and since the film takes place a few years after the end of the Civil War, the current debate over the Confederate flag became a topic of discussion.

Walton Goggins told the Associated Press that he spent the last few months in South Carolina, where the Confederate flag was removed from the state capitol’s grounds Friday in the wake of the deadly June 17 church shooting in Charleston.

“To be there, and to have witnessed the pain of that city coming off doing this movie, is extraordinary,” Goggins said. “And if there’s any person to bring this topic (of race and justice) back to the young people in this country, Tarantino is the one to do it.”

Goggins and co-star Tim Roth both said they found The Hateful Eight to be timely, even before the flag came down in South Carolina.

“Ferguson had just happened when we were rehearsing… it seems very pertinent, oddly enough,” Roth said. “And even more so now with what’s happening in Charleston.”

Roth also added that while he’s “not a big flag person,” he was “very glad to see that thing come down.”

For more on The Hateful Eight, you can read our recap of the film’s Comic-Con panel (and its most Tarantino-esque moments) here.