I don’t know what celebrities are thinking when they sit down for a Howard Stern interview. Stern doesn’t get enough credit, obviously, for making celebrities feel comfortable enough to admit to some awful things, and to say some truly terrible things. It was during a 2003 Stern interview that Quentin Tarantino went off a cliff as he defended Roman Polanski. Tarantino said, in part:
“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….He was guilty of having sex with a minor …She wanted to have it and dated the guy and —” [Robin cut him off at that point]
So, it was a big problem. Some people were like “but it was so long ago!” – it was 15 years ago, true, and the conversation around sexual assault, rape and abuse didn’t have the kind of mainstream constancy it has now, that’s true. But even Howard Stern and Robin Quivers were appalled by what Tarantino said, because the facts of the Polanski crime were well-known even then. In any case, Tarantino has been dealing with an enormous sh-tpile of bad headlines in the past week, from Uma Thurman to these 2003 comments. And after letting the story sit out there for days, Tarantino finally issued a statement on Thursday:
Quentin Tarantino is apologizing to Roman Polanski’s rape victim after claiming she “wanted” to have sex with the French-Polish director in resurfaced audio.
“I want to publicly apologize to Samantha Geimer for my cavalier remarks on The Howard Stern Show speculating about her and the crime that was committed against her,” Tarantino said in a statement to IndieWire. “Fifteen years later, I realize how wrong I was. Ms. Geimer WAS raped by Roman Polanski. When Howard brought up Polanski, I incorrectly played devil’s advocate in the debate for the sake of being provocative. I didn’t take Ms. Geimer’s feelings into consideration and for that I am truly sorry. So, Ms. Geimer, I was ignorant, and insensitive, and above all, incorrect. I am sorry Samantha.”
Geimer recently spoke to The New York Daily News about the resurfaced audio of Tarantino’s interview after it had gone viral over the weekend.
“He was wrong. I bet he knows it. I hope he doesn’t make an a– of himself and keep talking that way,” Geimer said. “I’m not upset, but I would probably feel better if he realizes now that he was wrong, after 15 years, after hearing the facts. He is obviously incorrect. Hopefully by now he knows that it didn’t happen that way. It’s not a big deal to me what people think. It doesn’t make a difference in my life. I know what happened. I do not need other people weighing in on what it’s like getting raped at 13.”
There really is no “good” apology you can make when you’ve f–ked up as badly as Tarantino f–ked up. I will give him half a point for not deflecting, not saying “sorry you were offended” or “sorry IF you were offended.” He admits to being ignorant, insensitive and wrong. I also don’t think he was just being contrarian, or playing devil’s advocate in that 2003 interview. He truly believed that Roman Polanski got a raw deal back then, that it was just a “statutory” issue. Men really do live in a bubble of their own privilege, don’t they? But I’m not going to put this all on men – as we’ve seen over and over and over again, there are plenty of women still willing to carry water for alleged (and even convicted) abusers and rapists too.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
As someone who absolutely loved QT and his craft ( yeah, I was one of those…) – You cannot keep saying sh*t and then apologizing for it Quentin. That’s not how this works!!
What you said about a child wanting it ( her rape ) was abhorrent and truly disgusting, a belated apology will not fix it….feel free to stop talking now, sit down and shut up!!
Forcing yourself on someone who isn’t in the position to consent—whether they are under age, under the influence, have a mental deficit, or some combination thereof—IS RAPE. Why must we continue to explain this?
Quentin needs to go away for a very, very long time. Forever, even.
EXACTLY!!! Seriously, what goes through some mens’ heads when they say crap like this? Why do they believe nonsense like this and then think its a great idea to say it out loud. As a #Metoo, this level of idiocy is starting to piss me off.
QT needs to go away, and take Matt Damon and the whole lot with him, forever.
I used to love him too. This is awful! 😩 what’s wrong with men in Hollywood?
Say what you will but only men keep a global sex trade going. Sex workers/ slaves and fetishes of school girls / barely legal is majority women/ girls. This needs to be regulated everywhere like Europe and Nevada as it obviously will never cease.
This is where I am at also. I used to love his work but this is not something you can take back.
Well, I’ve always hated his grotesquely violent and self indulgent films but this is just something crafted by a pr firm to help save his career. Whatever, he’ll probably keep making films and if they make money, he’s all good. Ugh.
I had to brace myself every time I watched pulp fiction. It was considered so “cool” to find humor in his graphic footage. Now His sadistic schadenfruede has come to light, and not very “cool” for actual victims. #timesup. No more degradation thrown in our faces masquerading as “art”.
Sometimes an apology just isn’t enough.
This right here.
Nothing he can do to make this right. There are some lines that just should not be crossed. Doesn’t matter how long ago this was.
He actually referred to her as one of those ‘Party Girls’. Speaks volumes that he could imagine a child that young could possibly have some great influence over a fully grown man.
He talks about “it is not rape, not for these 13-year-old party girls”. Disgusting. I also think that statement is quite telling about what was going on in those circles.
Yes. I’m thinking he’s encountered young girls with their stage parents himself, at industry events and so on, and that he considers them fair game. They wear little dresses, they might accept drinks from you, they giggle and smile, and their parents just love it when industry people show them attention… So, all above board, right? It’s horrifying.
But it’s better than staying silent. I don’t think he understands what he said. But there’s always hope that one day he will.
Men can be so dumb. And btw Galliano gets destroyed for saying crap. Tarantino keeps working. Allen is working. Polanski is working. Scary Terry is working. What the heck??
“Men really do live in a bubble of their own privilege, don’t they?”
This. If every man were to line up and apologize to me for horrendous crap they’ve said throughout the years, I’d be listening 24/7 for at least a solid week lol. Granted, now that I’m older, I don’t receive that kind of attention anymore (which is awesome), it still stings and I fully remember having to overcome and wade through. Even the MILF crud irritated.
They do. Even men I love do and have to learn some new things.
Is it weird that I don’t like that he called her Samantha? He’s not her friend so stick to Ms. Geimer.
And g*ddammit, can men stop playing “devil’s advocate” when really they’re just being dismissive?
That stuck out at me too, just, Ugh!!!
I hate when anyone does that consistently as a personality trait. At some point, you are just a contrarian.
Man, when Howard Stern is hinting to you in not a very subtile way that you are wrong on his show, you are in trouble. Not buying his “devil’s advocate” excuse though. He would never have came up with the conclussion it is wrong, just like covering for his abusive friend Harvey (he admits to as much as knowing he was a predator before they got to working on Kill Bill) before it was ever pointed out to him by public outrage. Which is probably also is how we will force the things into changing a bit, by shaming men for their views on sexuality, women and power. At the same time I realize that it’s a misplaced anger, because it is not Quentin who was himself accused of rape or assault.
He saw nothing wrong in a grown man having sex with a 13 year old girl. Even if he would have had his facts wrong (almost 30 years after the crime!) and thought the sex was consensual… how could that be involving a 13 YEAR OLD? And a man in his 40s!!! There is no apology for that. And please all that crap of ‘it was the 70s, it was a different time’ (not coming from him but people defending rock stars etc.) Yeah it was. Mostly for rich white men who had sex with underage girls. I don’t care if the the girls thought they wanted to have sex with rock stars, actors and directors – they were underage. As a grown man you should not want to have sex with them. And yes, that means even David Bowie was an ass.
THIS^ As if this is commonplace to have sex with a thirteen year old! It’s become apparent that in his (and the general male power) universe, the concept of a “minor” doesn’t exist. The fresher the fruit, the better.
By the time all of these lizards are revealed, I’m pretty confident I won’t be spending little, if any, of my time or money on products these industries “create”.
And he wants a cookie for this. No dude, go away.
It’s ONLY women pushing back which can stop sexual exploitation of minors.
You can tell how much clout women have in just about any society, by looking at what age girls are when they are expected to have sex and/or marry.
That way, you end up with societies where men rape girls of eight or ten, and all (the men) thinks that’s okay, as long as he marries her if the story gets out.
Women really can’t trust men with this issue. The whole thing about men thinking with their d*cks isn’t just a joke. Nothing will be gained for us by playing nice and being quiet.
Well said, Ankhel.
I only recently started to listen to Stern, and while there is all sorts of grossness that happens, and he does say a lot of problematic stuff, he’s actually a very interesting person and his interviews are probably the best around. Knowing he and 45 were friendly enough to attend each other’s weddings I started listening to see if he would address anything, and I’ve come to really appreciate his POV. Again, he’s not without problems and I have an issue with what I find to be exploitation of some people with clear cognitive deficits, and his staff is incredibly crude…but it’s very “equal opportunity” grossness. How he’s spoken about Weinstein, other people being outed as predators, his involvement with his wife in animal rescue…there’s some interesting stuff. I’m sure there’s very valid reasons why people dislike him so much, but I was actually surprised when I started to listen as a break between Morning Joe and BBC. I only mention this because I find it so interesting that so many interviews with Stern often come back as the strongest cases of someone’s true personality.
When he started he was so gross and dude bro to the extreme. With time he has matured and changed and his interviews reflect that. There is still some dude bro in there, but not as much as before.
This completely. I love him though. Been listening to him for 25 years.
What drives me crazy are the people who have only heard soundbites or excepts from his show and decided that he’s a misogynist.
Also, I’ll never forget how hard he went for John Kerry and how much he criticized and despised GW Bush back in the day. He lost so many listeners from taking that stance because people didn’t want him to get political on his show.
Everyone is all “If Howard Stern is the moral arbiter then…”
But to me, it’s not surprising at all.
@Kitten, I am a huge fan also. I used to live for waking up at six pm to hear his thoughts for the day in the beginning of his show on regular radio. I think I became a fan in 2000 or somewhere along there. Before that, I thought he was a creep.
And I am not explaining away nor defending a lot of his shtick grossness that occurred on the show for his radio audience or some of the vile things he has said about celebrities. And most of those celebs have made up with him and love him now. But he has evolved and matured over the years in that respect, and even before then, he always had a keen intelligence and I enjoyed him and what he had to say about pop culture, issues or news of the day. I just turned it off when they went into the gross stuff.
So I guess I’m a hypocrite, but I don’t care. I am a fan of Howard and like to listen to his political commentary and his interviews and his love of music discussions and his banter with Robin. I loved his battles with his producer when he was on regular radio and his fights with Gary, poor Gary.
I also, like Erinn, love all of his supporting of Beth as far as fostering and rescuing cats.
I like Stern the person. Stern the personality was (as LAK said) a super dude-bro. Which was gross. But he knew that was going to make money. It was a niche that could be filled, and he performed great despite me hating a lot of what he said.
Stern the person though, seems to be a pretty good guy for the most part. He’s intelligent, he’s reflective. He’s matured incredibly. And he’s fostered over 300 kittens. He’s a huge animal lover, and since marrying Beth it’s just grown like crazy when it comes to cats. She says he’ll come home from work stressed out at times, go into the kitten foster room and come out a different person after decompressing from the day. Which – honestly is heart warming.
He’s said some horrible things in the name of entertainment, but he has gotten quite a bit better.
Love me some Beth Stern.
I also don’t think he was just being contrary with defending Polanski, I think maybe he has skated around the edge of that type of behaviour himself and was trying to justify it as normal. I always, always side eye anyone who so ardently defends an abuser, makes me think that the behaviour is right in their wheelhouse .
Like you said he wasnt even playing devil’s advocate he just said isnt wasnt rape and that was clearly his opinion. He didnt play this like an intellectual argument to make someone see another side. He was just stating that he thought she wanted it.
The only good thing in this statement is that he flat out said that Polanski raped her.
Hey Tarentino: Sex with a kid is rape. Plying a kid with booze and pills is rape. Plying a woman with pills and booze so she can’t be lucid is rape. It was true 30 years ago it is still true today. So for you to say “She wanted to have it and dated the guy ” is violence on its own. He freaking plied her with booze!!!!! ” and a perverted 40+ guy having sex with a 13 year old is a felony. keeping pics of kids molested is A VIOLENT CRIME. Rapists priests, rapist teachers, rapists uncle/brother/father etc who rape kids and tell them not to tell anyone and threaten them with what they would do their family is A VIOLENT CRIME..
I read comment from guys who say “she looks like an woman though” when they talk about underage girl with developed breasts and I wonder what it is gonna take for these men to draw the line. They justify everything with the most dumb reasoning. “she didn’t say no” (when the woman/girl is drunk or drugged).. “she didn’t really say No”.. ” I paid her drinks she didn’t say no then, why now”.etc.. To this day it’s the judge who presided on the case of the girl raped and the rapist was sentenced to just 6 months because “we can’t destroy his future” and unfortunately when judges give a pass to the rapist all hell brake loose. This judge is and won’t be the only one who thinks about the perpetrators future. Soon a judge will tell a child victim to married her rapist like in some countries.. I am so over this crap.
I was reading yesterday about a judge who offered a shorter sentence if the woman would sterilize herself. She agreed and got 12 months instead of 16. I just googled to find the story, and instead found a story about a Tenn. judge who takes 30 days off the sentence of inmates who get vasectomies. This is disturbing.
To be clear, the judge made a suggestion, not an order. The woman in question had a long rap sheet, was an addict and had seven children, of which she was raising one.
I read a story but a woman wanted her tubes to be tied and the doc refused: What if you husband wanted kids? And it lead me to different articles of judges not wanting to castrate rapists because “one day they will meet a lady they want to settle down with” and other reasons. And then to other topics still in the same line like rapists having rights to see their kids.. smh
My view on this is that it is done wrong in the criminal justice system. It should be a choice only program for people who can’t afford to do it for whatever reason.
But I think if someone wants to be sterilized there should be an easy way for them to do it. This country makes birth control expensive and hard to access. Abortion even more so. If women with drug problems know they can’t beat it and use their bodies to get drugs and don’t want to be pregnant, then it should be an option for them. We need to stop moralizing and help them.
If she brings a drug-addicted baby into the world, she can go to jail. But then what are her other options. We refuse to treat addicts appropriately and criminalize drug use so there should be an option to avoid prison on that charge.
If a man wants the big snip too. Help him get it.
My attitude about this changed a lot when my brother recently adopted some foster kids. The mother did not want them. But drugs and lifestyle gave her no choices. If she the choices had been available she would not have had a baby. She knows she is incapable and she knows she is too messed up to be a parent. The most loving thing she did was zero in on my sister in law, saw that she had a good life and pushed for them to take her kids.
This is another way society tries to own a woman’s body and morality. We know what we want.
He was 39/40 when he said what he said. He really thinks it’s okay to have sex with 13 year olds. No way around it.
I believe the weirdo fantasizes about harming women and he can get away with it on his movie sets. I wonder what he gets up to when he’s not working👀
It’s really gross to see some women in Hollywood come out and defend him for his sickness. It’s because he still has power and they want to work with him again. Yuck.
“It’s really gross to see some women in Hollywood come out and defend him for his sickness. ”
Who defended him?
“He was 39/40 when he said what he said” This. How long ago it was is really not of the matter. If he was 15 I’d still think this was terrible but you gotta give teenagers time to grow up and make mistakes. He was already a middle aged man thats supposedly a writer.
Irrelevant if it was a “different time”. Doing that was wrong at all times. You dont need a deep understanding of things to see that.
Uma Thurman,Diane Kruger, and Fergie. He choked and spit on UT, choked DK until she passed out and bit fergie so hard he left bruise marks. Oh yeah, and Amber tamblyn. Don’t think he abused her but she stood up for him when the whole Weinstein scandal was picking up steam- even used her Twitter to release a statement for him. 🙄
he still has clout in Hw and can probably ruin careers so I’m side eyeing them 👀
Diane Kruger didn’t say anything about his Polanski comments or discredit Uma Thurman. She made a statement about her own experience with Quentin Tarantino, which is fine. Uma Thurman experienced things working with him that she didn’t. I wouldn’t take the risk Diane took for her craft, but I’m not sure if an adult making the decision to take risks for their art or their sport should automatically be labelled as abuse if that’s not how they define it. Uma’s statement didn’t read like a defense of him either- it read like she was talking about someone she trusted and felt close to, but who had abused that trust and failed her. I didn’t read Fergie’s statement. But looking at all these things together, Quentin does have a bad pattern of endangering people who work for him.
“He truly believed that Roman Polanski got a raw deal back then”
The truth is he probably still believes this but knows he can’t say it. A lot of show business people do. Remember the petition? Another reason I’m not interested in this “call out until they apologize” game. I mean yes it needed to be said in this case but I still shrugged. There is ZERO way to know for sure if it’s genuine or self-serving. Move forward and do better, that’s all any of them can do. Oh and Quentin you and what’s left of Miramax owe Uma Thurman a LARGE financial settlement for her injuries.
True. But the victim believes he got a raw deal also. She believes his plea and agreed to time in jail was fair. She is more furious with the judge who backed out of said plea agreement as far as time, and says the the justice system and media are what made her life hell. She has said time and time again he should be able to come back.
So for all of those actors and actresses that were behind him, the victim gave them even more leeway during the Oscars back then since she supported him being nominated and winning, for them to stand up and give a standing ovation for his win. I mean, where do we begin with all of this? Quentin is more problematic because he really was disgusting in how he described this very young girl. His viewpoint is from reading Polanski’s book? Wow.
And the victim may think he should come back because he paid his debt to society for his crime with her, but if you read all of the comments Polanski has made over the years, he is obsessed with youth and young girls. I’m glad he never came back and wasn’t allowed to over the past decades, because I believe he is a serial predator of underage girls.
Agreed, Jayna, it’s not up to the victim to decide Polanski’s punishment. The fact is he isn’t a threat to only her. He is a threat to any young girl who crosses his path. I think it’s good he’ll never come back here and have more victims added to his list, at least from here. I’m sure he’s done it to other girls and that makes me sick.
I do feel bad for Samantha and all she went through, but that is also his fault for doing what he did to her and putting her in that situation I the first place.
Yeah, I agree Mia.
There is no way to know if he means it or not. I have always thought he was weird about women. All I hope is that he grows, learns and becomes an ally eventually for real. I believe people can change and learn. We need these guys to help call out bad behavior in the future.
If he does. Good. A positive outcome.
If not then he just sits in the category I have always had him in. I did like the Kill Bill movies though.
The good thing is he admits it’s rape…the bad thing…he’s always known. Quentin Tarantino is problematic…I mean no one knew this before? Have you not seen his movies? The only positive to come out of this is now the rest of you know who Quentin really is. I doubt his movies will change..it’s “art” after all but it’s something that viewers will now have a better understanding of who is making their movies.
Yeah, sorry, not good enough.
He knows his words are listened to, he knows he impacts not just Geimer, but many people when he says these things.
He ‘played devils advocate’ to prove a point, to share his opinion loudly and on a public stage. The young girls and boys who looked up to him could hear this. The people who idolized his brand of violence, or even his particular directorial vision, could hear this.
He needs to take greater responsibility than, I hurt Samantha.
He hurt every statuary rape survivor, and he hurt every survivor with that dismissive and disgusting bullshit, and he spread it. And if he said that on public radio, I’m sure he said it elsewhere.he needs to acknowledge that he, personally, helped spread this type of rape culture.
He’s great at understanding his impact when it comes to being a director, he needs to acknowledge it here too.
This apology is so unlike him, just based on his interviews recently. His first instinct is not to take responsibility. I’m guessing he may be having trouble casting his next film. Actors are rumored, but none have been officially confirmed.
No, he won’t. He is not a predator, so far as we know, so he won’t. It isn’t a big enough “scandal”. Look how long it took Woody Allen to finally get blacklisted by anyone, and he did far worse than make ugly nasty statements.
I was listening to the Howard Stern Show during the interview with Quentin Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino went to call the TEN year old victim a ‘Party Girl’ and responded to Howard with ‘What’s wrong with that?’
I could could hear the disgust in both Howard and Robin, but Quentin Tarantino firmly stood his ground.
I t appears that Quentin Tarantino is caught up now in the entire Uma Thurman black lash. I don’t if this apology is sincere
the squeaking noise from all the back pedaling this d-bag is doing is hurting my ears!
Nooo. Nope. It’s just too late. Dude is 54 years old. He was around 40 when he said that a 13 year old girl wanted it. In a case that went to court and got a conviction. There are not gray areas here. If you think that way at 40, you think that way at 54. He’s learning to adapt and probably crying man-tears into his dude-beer every night, mourning the good old times when you could use a set and Hollywood as your playground. I’m over it.
And can we stop pretending like 15/20 years ago most people considered this okay? It was the new millennium. Not 1940.
Again that is the year Roman Polanski won the Academy Award. He was championed by all sorts of people after a successful PR push. My issue with this scandal is that we keep talking about QT but not about the Academy who said it was ok too by honoring the man with an award. What about all the actors who worked with him for the past 40 years? We call out Woody Allen’s actors but his we don’t? Sigourney Weaver played in Death of a Maiden, which I saw not realizing the full backstory. Johnny Depp LOVES him. On and on.
It just seems like the whole Polanski thing needs to get a hard look as a whole. It requires exposes and a bright light on all the complicit people who helped this man over the last 40 years.
Nothing will change unless we get to the culture of complicity and make the environment so unfriendly to that behavior that these predators get no support from anyone.
I just feel it is easier to get mad at statements and this allows nothing to get done on a deeper level that changes things. He should be made to apologize to the victim. He was wrong. But it needs to be the beginning of untangling Polanski and not a one-off.
Ummm lot’s of Polanski supporters and collaborators have been called out. The whole Oscar push has been called out many times. There was no social media then to broadcast it to you, but just because you didn’t see it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. Harrison Ford has been called out for working on Frantic. It’s been there, but metoo pushed it into the forefront. Angelica Huston said something similar about Geimer looking older and presenting herself as older.
Why can’t QT be called out for this? I really don’t care what Polanski’s so called PR was pushing. Those with morals wouldn’t say that.
You and others need to stop. Polanski has been called out many many times hun. It’s the Hollywood system and his defenders that have kept his career going, just like Woody Allen.
No, I don’t need to stop.
There was no pushback, or else Polanski wouldn’t have still been able to make movies, and he still gets financed. If for you outrage without action is enough then that is how YOU roll, but I don’t. I find it hypocritical. I find Howard Stern hypocritical. I find Hollywood hypocritical.
You obviously DON’T remember it or need to do more research because there was a push to make Polanski look better like it was a big mistake. Nothing more. Like sheep, most of Hollywood followed this narrative.
I appreciate sarcasm, but it is much more effective if it is backed up with facts and not conflated fantasies. What kind of pushback could have possibly been happening when the guy won an Academy Award for The Pianist 30 years after the rape? He has directed 8 films since 2002. Produced and written 5 or 6. Carnage in 2011 starred Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C Reilly. Other actors who worked with him are Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Vincent Perez, Emanuelle Seigner…all since 2010.
Who finances his films? Who shows them? Who produces them?
So explain how this happens if some people don’t believe Polanski’s lies or do you assert that Eva Green is complicit and condones child rape?
This is the real problem. Active support from people who should know better. He’s won and been nominated for over 80 awards or so since the rape.
If calling out into the void is good enough for you then fine. 24-48 hour outrage du jour seems to be followed by an apology of necessity, sincerity not required and nothing changes.
Already Uma’s story has been eclipsed by the outcry about QT’s comments in 2003 and not about Uma’s interview a few days ago. We aren’t talking about her, or her experiences are we? Maybe for you, Quentin Tarantino’s words are more important than Uma Thurman’s. They aren’t for me.
What I find more disturbing is the erasure of the victims in these stories and holding no one directly involved accountable.
Hun? Lol, It’s too soon for pet names.
Being provocative. Ha. That’s funny and not in a good way. Have some insight, Quentin, and admit the truth. He was adamantly defending Polanski, and how he defended him was putting down the young girl with vile remarks about her being a party girl and being down for it and basically talking about America’s puritanical views compared to Europe’s.
In his mind, because the young girl had admitted she had had sex before and because I believe she had admitted taking a Quaalude before or something similar, this made it okay for a middle-aged man to trick this girl into disrobing for a fake photo shoot and then plying her with alcohol and drugs to get what he wanted, a young girl who would be compliant, because she was out of it on drugs and alcohol. And like I’m sure she was really down for anal sex at 13 with a perverted older man? Sure, Quentin, keep telling yourself that. Disgusting. Then why was she crying when she left his house afterwards?
He said on Stern she was dating Polanski. In no way is that true. They had no dating relationship.
I don’t really understand why some people have this idea in their head that rape is only something that happens when you are a little virgin dressed down wallflower walking down the street at night and a big scary man jumps out of an alley and “throws you down” and beats you into submission before raping you. It’s like everything before that just can’t possibly be rape and the lines of fault increasingly blur.
Gross.
That’s why it’s so important to educate people and the younger generations about this. So many people really think that rape can only happen if a person uses physical violence, and they can’t imagine any other escenario. I think things are starting to change a little but it will take a while for the complete switch.
I hate when people feel the need to tell you that Polanski wasn’t convicted of rape, but of unlawful sex with a minor. The latter is a charge usually applied to “consensual” sex with a minor, so they immediately go to Tarantino’s idea that the victim “wanted it”.
No. The reality is that Polanski was only charged of that because he got a plea deal. The original charges were pretty serious, and they included rape and sodomy, but to avoid an expensive trial with an uncertain outcome, he was offered that euphemism in exchange of a guilty plea. But Polanski is a rapist and I don’t understand why he’s gone under the radar when so many women have come out lately to say he abused them when they were children. Disgusting.
As for Tarantino, I’m sure he’s sorry he said that because the backlash just won’t stop coming. It’s truly a statement of the culture change that when he said those things 15 years ago no one seemed to care, and now it’s a big deal. I don’t know if he truly changed his mind though, but at least he apologized.
Even IF she thought she “wanted” it and they “dated”, it would STILL have been rape.
But it didn’t go down like that at ALL. He sodomized her for Christ’s sake. He drugged her and got her drunk and held her down with his body weight and ignored her many attempts to resist or remove herself. She went home that night and broke down completely.
Her memoir should really be REQUIRED READING for anyone in Hollywood (or elsewhere) who thinks they have a right to decide anything about his awful crime.
GOLLY he loves the sound of himself. I never liked his movies. Nearly all feature disturbing, poorly disguised misogyny. He uses rape as an almost comedic device (The hillbillies in Pulp Fiction, or that ridiculous Buck?!) or even portray the rapist as some kind of pathetic victim (Quentin himself in “From Dusk Till Dawn.” YIKES.). After years of being persuaded to gag my way through his “projects” because the WRITING (eye roll), his self-serving apology will be the LAST thing of his I ever read or listen to. I’m just so tired of hearing these people TALK. You’ve had your turn. Now SIT DOWN and let others talk for once.
It pains me more that she gets dragged back into the fray because of vile statements like this. She has expressed that she wants to move beyond this crime and then it bubbles up again.
The statement was not made to be controversial, it was made because he believed it and that is utterly vile!
A very good point that doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves.
Go to hell. He’s been an issue for me since day one with his torture porn.
Disgusting that you can even imagine that a 13 yr old and a grown man together are appropriate!! How do grown men believe that that’s ok
Yes! Original statement was awful, for many reasons, well-stated above. Yes! His work is problematic and I am Not A Fan. But he can’t go back in time and un-say it. SO…what would you have rather had him say in his statement today? I thought this was much better than a lot, even most, of the responses we are getting from men in Hollywood. Damon and Affleck?! Or from USA Gymnastics – did you read their unbelievably victim-blaming statement?! (Before they were all invited to Fuck Off by the USOC.) Or from the administration – did you read John Kelly’s full throated support of Rob Porter?!
Am I the only one who feels this way?
I think the point is, there are no cookies for crafting the only decent thing that could be said given his horrendous behavior.
The fact that others cannot manage to do the bare minimum doesn’t elevate that it is all that he did or entitle him to not wear the stain of what he did.
No. I think the only thing someone can do is apologize and learn from statements. That is it. He can make amends by being a better person, but that is all. That is why for me I judge behavior after #metoo differently than before.
I also put problem statements in one category and the actions of a predator in another. Co-conspirators in another. Complicits in another.
My father works on restoring voters rights to nonviolent felons. The biggest obstacle is that the public thinks a felon shouldn’t be able to vote. My father’s argument is that they paid their due to society, so they deserve to have all their rights restored. But we want the punishment to continue without any regard to rehabilitation. Rehab changes things, but continued punishment does not.
Some problem statements are like that to me. Do better. Be part of the solution. Learn from it.
I completely agree with your father and I would go so far as to call him a hero.
Honestly, the most recent Mark Salling thread was yet more evidence of how messed up our society is in the way that we dehumanize criminals. And yes, I am well aware of how terrible a pedophile is, but the attitude that criminals deserve to die, that they shouldn’t have any rights whatsoever, that they are disposable, irredeemable, and unworthy humans that nobody will miss is soooooo f*cked up–so f*cking toxic and destructive to society.
In the meantime, our prison system is a complete nightmare. Other countries (as usual) are light-years ahead of us and also (surprise!) FAR less violent:
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1986002,00.html
ETA: Appreciate and agree with all your comments on the Tarantino threads, Mags.
@kitten
Thanks! My father seems intimidating and unflappable, but he has deep convictions about justice and civil rights. Still, waters run deep applies to him. He is committed to this issue, and I learned a lot about it over the years.
I worry in this time of 45 we are becoming reactionary without follow through and that our culture is becoming too punitive without room for redemption. In some cases at least.
Keeping nonviolent felons from voting is racist and economic bigotry since those are the people most affected by the law and whose voices are silenced the most often. Their lives and opinions matter but are treated like garbage so that those in power can stay in power any way they can.
Yet there is silence about these issues.
We will never evolve and become more humane and civilized if we continue down this road. Like you said other countries are light years ahead and it shows.
If somebody tells you something about themselves, believe it…..He is trying to find a way to salvage his life, but he is the same person he was then. FBI profilers would have a field day with him.
QT is only apologizing now because there is backlash. I had no idea that he said this 15 odd years ago on Howard Stern. I would have written him off then. Who in their right mind would think that it is okay to have sex with a 13 year old? In any given situation. I’m not saying that people can’t change and do better, become a better person, but I am having a tough time believing that QT’s thought process has changed on this subject.
You know why Roman Polanski has been able to work for 40 years and have an Oscar campaign for the Pianist? Because his Hollywood buddies made him out to be a poor ostracized genius and a victim of an overzealous DA. They made Geimer out to be a fame hungry girl who seduced a poor old man. I really don’t care what Polanski’s PR was, no moral person believes this stuff. I know it was so called spun over the years, but those documents have been out there for a long time. I know all about his woe is me the Los Angeles court system is going to re neg on their deal and send me to prison defense.
So he ran and still gets lauded as a genius. Harrison Ford, Johnny Depp and other big names work with him and defend his rights as an artist with their petition in regards to that film festival. Whoopi Goldberg defended him. All of these interviews need to be unearthed. No so the actors can be cancelled, but to show them how much their complicity led to a culture of victim shaming. I don’t hate QT, I think he was very blind and believed some amoral stuff. Just like Whoopi did. But they need to be called out just as much as ardent Woody Allen defenders should. Called out doesn’t mean cancelled or black listed, it means to have to atone for the words and actions that led us to these men having long careers despite being predators.
Tarantino is about my age. Fifteen years ago he was almost 40! Fifteen years ago was 2003–not exactly the dark ages, fer crying outloud! I bet he was getting gray hair by then.
I am really tired of white men conveniently infantilizing themselves when they do something wrong (“such a young man, didn’t know the consequences, so young, bright future ahead, etc…”). Meanwhile, any pre-teen African American child can be wrestled to the ground or even shot dead because they “look grown up, intimidating, violent…” Just sick of these sorry excuses and sick of Tarantino.
The only thing that would have worked would have been something like this “I am sorry for my comments 15 years ago. I was an asshole for saying such things. Anyone who says or thinks that way is an asshole. I am deeply ashamed for such comments. Roman Polanski is/was a monster. My feelings and words were horrible. I am terribly sorry. ” Then shut up for a year or so. Just go away for a nice vacation and say nothing in public.