Getty
Quentin Tarantino says that he knew about some of the allegations made against Harvey Weinstein and feels ashamed that he didn’t speak out at the time.
“I knew enough to do more than I did,” he told The New York Times. “There was more to it than just the normal rumours, the normal gossip. It wasn’t secondhand. I knew he did a couple of these things.”
“I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard,” he added. “If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him.”
The famed director – who worked with Weinstein on numerous occasions over the course of his career – says his ex-girlfriend Mira Sorvino told him about the producer’s predatory behaviour. She told him that, prior to their relationship, Weinstein had chased her around a hotel room, massaged her without asking and even turned up at her apartment in the middle of the night.
“I was shocked and appalled,” Tarantino said. “I couldn’t believe he would do that so openly. I was like: ‘Really? Really?’ But the thing I thought then, at the time, was that he was particularly hung up on Mira. She had won accolades for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite, and I thought Harvey was hung up on her in this Svengali kind of way. Because he was infatuated with her, he horribly crossed the line.”
He knew of other similar stories. Tarantino was aware that Rose McGowan had reached a settlement with Weinstein over an incident that happened at the Sundance Film Festival and he was also told by an actress friend that she too had been forced to bat off unwanted advances in a hotel room. The director confronted Weinstein, who in turn apologised to the actress in question.
Getty
“I chalked it up to a ’50s-’60s era image of a boss chasing a secretary around the desk,” he said. “As if that’s O.K. That’s the egg on my face right now.”
Tarantino asserts that Weinstein’s behaviour was commonly known about in Hollywood.
“Everyone who was close to Harvey had heard of at least one of those incidents,” he said. “It was impossible they didn’t.”
More than 30 women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault and harassment. He has denied all claims of non-consensual sex.
From: Harper’s BAZAAR UK
