Quentin Tarantino Defends Roman Polanski in Resurfaced Interview About 13-Year-Old Girl

Audio from director's 2003 interview with Howard Stern has surfaced online

By Jess Cohen Feb 06, 2018 7:49 PMTags
Quentin TarantinoJohn Salangsang/Variety/REX/Shutterstock

Just days after Uma Thurman spoke to the New York Times about being injured during a car crash on Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, an interview with the director and Howard Stern from 2003 has resurfaced.

In her NYT interview, Thurman discussed a car stunt she was asked to do on the set the movie, sharing that she wasn't comfortable but felt pressured to do it. "Quentin came in my trailer and didn't like to hear no, like any director," she said. "He was furious because I'd cost them a lot of time. But I was scared. He said: 'I promise you the car is fine. It's a straight piece of road.'"

After being persuaded to do it, Thurman was injured after the car crashed into a palm tree during the stunt.

A post shared by Uma Thurman (@ithurman) on

Thurman shared video footage of the crash on her Instagram on Monday, which Tarantino gave her. Shortly after, Tarantino broke his silence on the crash in an interview with Deadline, calling the incident one of the "biggest regrets of my life."

He told the publication, "As a director, you learn things and sometimes you learn them through horrendous mistakes. That was one of my most horrendous mistakes, that I didn't take the time to run the road, one more time, just to see what I would see."

On February 4, audio from Tarantino's 2003 interview with Stern was posted on YouTube in which the radio host asked the director about Roman Polanski. At the beginning of the interview, Stern references an interview he did in which he was asked if he was "happy" about Polanski winning an Oscar at the 2003 award show.

"Yeah that was pretty cool actually," Tarantino can be heard saying. The interview then replied, "What's so great about a rapist being a recipient of Hollywood's highest honor?"

In response, Tarantino said, "I don't consider him a rapist."

After replaying the interview, Stern asked Tarantino, "How could you defend...see I don't understand this. How come Hollywood embraces this madman, this director who raped a 13-year-old?"

Tarantino then replied, "He didn't rape a 13-year-old it was statutory rape. That's not quite the same thing. It's statutory rape, he had sex with a minor, that's not rape. To me, when you use the word 'rape' alright you're talking about violent, throwing them down. It's like one of the most violent crimes in the world."

He continued, "Throwing the word 'rape' around is like throwing the word 'racist' around. It just doesn't apply to everything that people use it for. He was guilty of having sex with a minor."

Robin Quivers then replied, "That she didn't want to have."

Tarantino then said, "No that was not the case at all! She wanted to have it and dated the guy..."

"...she was 13!" Quivers reminded Tarantino, to which he replied, "And by the way, we're talking about America's morals, we're not talking about the morals in Europe and everything."

Stern then stopped the conversation and said, "Wait a second, you have sex with a 13-year-old girl and you're a grown man, you know that that's wrong because she hasn't..."

Tarantino then said, "Look she was down with it."

You can listen to the full audio recording HERE.

E! News has reached out to Tarantino's rep for comment.