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Quentin Tarantino apologises to Roman Polanski sexual assault victim about comments on Howard Stern

He's finally addressing it

Ilana Kaplan
New York
Thursday 08 February 2018 20:12 GMT
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Quentin Tarantino defends Roman Polanski on The Howard Stern Show in 2003

Quentin Tarantino has issued an apology to the sexual assault victim of Roman Polanski after a 2003 interview with Howard Stern resurfaced where he defends the disgraced director.

After a New York Times piece on Uma Thurman's experience of a near-fatal car crash while working with Tarantino, the Kill Bill director was already being talked about by everyone.

But just a few days later, a 2003 audio recording of Tarantino on Howard Stern's show defending Polanski's sexual assault of a 13-year-old surfaced and the pitchforks came out.

“I don’t believe it’s rape, not at 13, not for these 13-year-old party girls," he claimed in the interview.

In 1977, Polanski was charged with unlawful sex with a minor.

One year later, he fled the US for France to avoid imprisonment or deportation.

On Wednesday Geimer spoke out about her encounter with Polanski from more than 40 years ago saying it was sexual assault.

Later that day, Tarantino called Geimer to apologise.

He gave his official statement of apology to Indiewire: "I want to publicly apologise to Samantha Geimer for my cavalier remarks on The Howard Stern Show speculating about her and the crime that was committed against her. Fifteen years later, I realise how wrong I was. MsGeimer 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 MsGeimer’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."

Tarantino seems to be on the circuit for making amends: he helped Thurman get back footage from 15 years ago of her crashing into a palm tree while driving during the filming of Kill Bill.

It remains to be seen whether or not the public will accept Tarantino's remorse.

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