Quentin Tarantino admits knowing about Harvey Weinstein and doing nothing about it
Quentin Tarantino has admitted that he knew about the allegations of sexual misconduct surrounding Harvey Weinstein, and has said he regrets not doing anything about it.
The director, who made a host of movies with Weinstein’s company Miramax and latterly with The Weinstein Company, added that it was ‘impossible’ that others didn’t know too.
“I knew enough to do more than I did,” he told the New York Times.
“I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard. If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him.”
According to the Times, Tarantino said he ‘knew he did a couple of these things’, including Weinstein having reached an out of court settlement with the actress Rose McGowan.
McGowan says that Weinstein raped her, and is among dozens of others who say they have been either assaulted or sexually harassed by the producer.
“We allowed it to exist because that’s the way it was,” Tarantino added.
“What I did was marginalize the incidents. Anything I say now will sound like a crappy excuse.
“Everyone who was close to Harvey had heard of at least one of those incidents. It was impossible they didn’t.”
The 54-year-old director’s breakthrough movie ‘Reservoir Dogs’ was distributed by Weinstein’s companies, as were ‘Pulp Fiction’ and all his consequent films, from ‘Kill Bill’ to ‘Django Unchained’.
Tarantino and Weinstein remained close friends outside of the movie business too, with Weintstein throwing the director an engagement party just weeks ago.
He’s also asked people who knew about Weinstein’s behaviour to stand up and do more.
“I’m calling on the other guys who knew more to not be scared. Don’t just give out statements. Acknowledge that there was something rotten in Denmark. Vow to do better by our sisters,” he said.
“What was previously accepted is now untenable to anyone of a certain consciousness.”
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