Quentin Tarantino Once Said 13-Year-Old Raped By Roman Polanski 'Wanted To Have It'

Ron Dicker
Updated

Director Quentin Tarantino may have some more explaining to do, a day after he expressed regret over a “Kill Bill” driving stunt that injured star Uma Thurman.

A 2003 radio interview with Howard Stern in which Tarantino downplayed Roman Polanski’s sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl went viral, placing the Oscar winning filmmaker in an uncomfortable spotlight.

“She wanted to have it,” the “The Hateful Eight” creator said of Polanski’s victim in the clip below.

“He didn’t rape a 13-year-old,” Tarantino told Stern. “It was statutory rape. That’s not quite the same thing. ... He had sex with a minor, all right. That’s not rape. To me, when you use the word rape, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down.”

Tarantino added: “Throwing the word ‘rape’ around is like throwing the word ‘racist’ around. It doesn’t apply to everything that people use it for.”

When radio co-host Robin Quivers said the girl didn’t want to have sex, Tarantino countered: “She wanted to have it.”

Quivers pointed out that the girl had been given drugs and alcohol, but Tarantino didn’t waver.

Polanski, director of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown,” was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977. He pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor, but fled the country before sentencing.

Quentin Tarantino, pictured in May 2017, is getting heat for remarks he made in an old interview with Howard Stern. (Photo: Michael Tran via Getty Images)
Quentin Tarantino, pictured in May 2017, is getting heat for remarks he made in an old interview with Howard Stern. (Photo: Michael Tran via Getty Images)

Quivers noted that Polanski could have avoided trouble in the first place by staying away from the 13-year-old, who really didn’t have legal standing to say yes or no. “He likes girls,” Tarantino said.

Tarantino conceded that if the victim were his daughter in a similar situation, “I’d beat the hell out of him.” But the victim in the case of Polanski, he said, “was down to party with Roman.”

In an unrelated development Monday, Tarantino told Deadline that having Thurman drive in a “Kill Bill” stunt that resulted in a crash that injured her neck and knees was “the biggest regret of my life.”

In an earlier New York Times piece, Thurman discussed an alleged assault by Harvey Weinstein and the car incident.

Reps for Tarantino didn’t immediately respond to a HuffPost request for comment.

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Jess

“I was walking home from work one day and I was on the phone, just about to cross the road. A guy stopped his car in the middle of the road and asked me to get in his car. I said no and tried to walk around it, so he drove his car to block my way. I tried to walk behind it but he did the same thing. He then shouted, 'Get in my car or I’ll run you over!' I then slammed my fists on the car bonnet and shouted at him, which I think shook him so it gave me some time to cross the road and run away.”

Florence

"Two summers ago I was walking to a supermarket in Marseille. A guy was getting out of his car and said to me, 'La pute c'est magnifique [Whores are beautiful],' as I walked past."
"Two summers ago I was walking to a supermarket in Marseille. A guy was getting out of his car and said to me, 'La pute c'est magnifique [Whores are beautiful],' as I walked past."

Monica

"I was on the subway, and I was approached by an older man who started asking me questions. We were the only ones on the platform, and he asked me if I was single, if I was a lesbian, and finally, 'Can I show you my penis?' He was cornering me between the platform and the edge; luckily the train pulled in at that moment, otherwise I don't know what he would have done."

Gina

"I just moved to New York and one day I decided to go downtown. I sat down on the train and one guy got on and stood right in front of me holding onto the rail. I turned my face and body to the right instead of his body in front of me. Then, I see a weird movement happening to my left, in the corner of my eye. It ended up being his penis sticking out of his zipper of his pants and he was rubbing it. I quickly turned my eyes back. I just thought it was sick that he even thought to do that right in front of my face. I am a short girl so anyone that stands in front of me I am eye level to that part of the body. There were tons of seats open and he still chose to stand in front of me. So I quickly just thought to get off at the next stop. I didn't really know what to do. It was a weird experience." 

Maya

"After leaving a nightclub with my friends and my girlfriend, we decided to get a bus to another venue. As we were waiting for the bus, a man approached me and started trying to chat me up. I said straightaway that I'm a lesbian, and that I was with my girlfriend. He then took that as some sort of challenge, and proceeded to tell me I just needed his dick and tried to expose himself to me. Fortunately, my male friend stepped in and eventually he managed to make him leave. The whole incident lasted about 20 minutes in total and was quite traumatic."

Gabriella

“When I was 15, I was walking home from school like I always did, in my school uniform. This time, however, a man kept kissing at me from his van. I decided to ignore him since it repulsed me, but he persisted to do it and call out remarks. After walking further up the road I turned around to notice that he had stopped, parked the van, opened the doors and was coming directly at me. Luckily I was around the corner from my house, so I ran down the hill to get home and didn’t look back.”

Danielle

"I was sitting on a coach traveling through Croatia, and four guys sat in the row of seats in front of me. One of them sat next to me uninvited and started making conversation. Over the next two hours he kept moving closer and closer to me, even trying to touch and stroke me. He tried to put his hand under my romper and each time I would tell him to leave me alone. There was a couple who was sitting across from us but they did nothing the whole time. When the coach stopped, I tried to move past him and he touched my bum."

Jess

“When I was about 12 or 13 me and my friends used to get the bus to school and a man who must have been about 40 tried to take photos on his phone up our skirts -- the police ended up getting called but said they couldn't do anything about it in the end.”
“When I was about 12 or 13 me and my friends used to get the bus to school and a man who must have been about 40 tried to take photos on his phone up our skirts -- the police ended up getting called but said they couldn't do anything about it in the end.”

Dorina

"I was walking down a street in Manhattan when I saw a man walking toward me. His daughter was holding his hand and his young son was behind him on a scooter. As the distance between us got shorter I could tell that he was intensely staring at me, studying my legs, my sundress, my cleavage. Just as our paths crossed he lunged toward me and whispered, 'Mmmm, I’d like to taste your chocolate.' I was most horrified that his daughter was right there, watching her father verbally assault me, while his son was behind learning from his actions."

Juliette

"I was 19, and I had just moved to Paris. I was in a crowded train and there was a guy pressed up against my back, then he started to move against me. I first thought he was trying to get off the train, but then he started to whisper in my ear. I turned around to face him, trying to look angry, but then he put his hands on my hips and started grinding on me. So I stepped on his toes hard, and then stormed out of the train." 

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.