In a new interview with the New York Times, director Quentin Tarantino said he’s been aware of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct for decades and feels ashamed for not speaking out.
Tarantino and Weinstein collaborated on several films, including Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglorious Bastards, and The Hateful Eight. They were also close friends: Weinstein threw Tarantino an engagement party several weeks before the allegations first surfaced, according to the Times.
As such, Tarantino told the Times, that he “knew enough to do more than I did. There was more to it than just the normal rumors, 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.”
Specifically, Tarantino said he was aware of his ex-girlfriend Mira Sorvino’s interactions with Weinstein, as well as Rose McGowan’s out-of-court settlement. Regarding Sorvino, who accused Weinstein of unwanted touching, Tarantino said that he was “shocked and appalled” when first learning of the incident in 1995. “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. 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.”
After apologizing for his own inaction, Tarantino called on other male members of Hollywood “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.”
