Quentin Tarantino has apologized for making insensitive comments about the woman who accused Roman Polanski of raping her as a teenager.
Samantha Geimer claimed Polanski assaulted her during a party at Jack Nicholson’s house in Los Angeles in 1977, when she was 13 years old. Polanski was indicted on charges of rape, sodomy, and furnishing drugs to a minor, but was offered a deal from prosecutors and only pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor. However, he fled the U.S. while he was awaiting formal sentencing, and has been living in exile ever since.
Earlier this week (ends09Feb18), audio footage from a 2003 interview Tarantino gave shock jock Howard Stern resurfaced online, and caused renewed outrage as the Inglourious Basterds director repeatedly defended Polanski’s actions, insisting he didn’t consider The Pianist filmmaker a rapist, stating, “He had sex with a minor. That’s not rape…”
When Stern’s co-host Robin Quivers interjected and insisted Geimer “didn’t want” to have sex with Polanski, Tarantino replied, “No, that was not the case at all. She wanted to have it and dated the guy…”
Geimer subsequently lashed out at Quentin, telling the New York Daily News, “He was wrong. I bet he knows it. I hope he doesn’t make an a** of himself and keep talking that way.”
And now the filmmaker is trying to make amends for the remarks he made 15 years ago by apologizing to Geimer over the phone and issuing a public statement.
“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,” a statement from the director reads. “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.”
Geimer has yet to react publicly to Tarantino’s apology.
The filmmaker also came under fire earlier this week (beg05Feb18) after footage of a Kill Bill car crash stunt that sent Uma Thurman to the hospital was published online to accompany the actress’ claims he forced her to get behind the wheel of an unsafe vehicle in a New York Times interview.
Uma subsequently revealed she has forgiven Tarantino after years of estrangement, while the director confessed the dangerous stunt remains “one of the biggest regrets of my life”.
