Hollywood has never really been a shining advocate of clear lines between right and wrong.
But when it comes to Tinseltown’s favorite rapey auteur, Roman Polanski, somehow the moral boundaries are not applicable anymore. In an interview with Howard Stern in 2003, brought to light by Jezebel, director Quentin Tarantino defended convicted child rapist Roman Polanski as innocent. His reason? “He didn’t rape a 13 year old, it was statutory rape. That’s not quite the same thing, alright?”
Tarantino’s comments sound like Whoopi Goldberg’s opinion on Polanski, when she said on The View: “I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape.”
After playing a clip where Tarantino said that it was “cool” that Polanski won an Oscar, Howard Stern asked the question the world has been pondering: “How come Hollywood embraces this madman, this director who raped a 13 year old?”
Tarantino denied that Polanski was a rapist, saying, “That’s statutory rape, you know, he had sex with a minor. Alright, that’s not rape. To me, when you use the word rape, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down, one of the most violent crimes in the world. You can’t throw….throwing the word rape around is like throwing the word racist around. It just doesn’t apply to everything that people use it for, alright? You know, he was guilty of having sex with a minor.”
Co-host Robin Quivers objected, “That she didn’t want to have!” But the Hollywood director who worked with Harvey Weinstein had his own version of the story.
Tarantino: No that was not the case at all. She WANTED to have it. Dated the guy
Quivers: She was thirteen!
Tarantino: And by the way, we’re talking about America’s morals, we’re not talking about the morals of Europe and everything. Morals of Europe, morals of China.
Stern: Wait a second, you have sex with a 13 year old and you’re a grown man. You know that that’s wrong …
Quivers: Giving her booze and pills ...
Tarantino: I’m not … She was down with it. And she’s talked about it! Now she’s an adult!
In an interview with Deadline Hollywood, Polanski’s victim, Samantha Geimer, stated, “You don’t have to fall apart to show that what happened to you was wrong.”
