Quentin Tarantino Said Homosexual Anal Rape Is ‘Really Funny’ In 2003 Interview About ‘Pulp Fiction’ Scene

A 2003 interview with Playboy, in which Quentin Tarantino said homosexual anal rape is “really funny,” resurfaced amid controversy over Uma Thurman’s allegations that she had been sexually assaulted by Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction producer Harvey Weinstein.

In the bombshell interview with the New York Times, published last Saturday, Thurman also opened up about a near-fatal car accident while filming Kill Bill in 2002. The actress, who provided footage of the crash, claimed that Tarantino, who directed both Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction, convinced her to drive the car instead of a stunt double.

The car accident occurred shortly after Thurman allegedly told Tarantino that she had been assaulted by Weinstein in London. Weinstein has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by at least 60 women since October 2017.

Ever since the disturbing expose was published by the Times, a series of controversial interviews of Tarantino have resurfaced, putting the two-time Oscar winning director’s Hollywood career in question.

Shortly after the release of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 in October 2003, Tarantino sat down with Playboy’s writer Michael Fleming for an interview for the magazine’s November issue.

As seen from the full interview, which can be accessed on The Quentin Tarantino Archives, the director talked about a pawnshop scene from 1994’s Pulp Fiction, starring Uma Thurman and produced by Weinstein. In the infamous scene, Butch Coolidge, played by Bruce Willis, rescues Marsellus Wallace, portrayed by Ving Rhames, who is being sexually assaulted by another man in the basement of the pawnshop.

Pressed by Fleming about who came up with the idea to film the homosexual rape in Pulp Fiction, Tarantino said it was Roger Avary, who co-penned the screenplay for the 1994 movie with the director, who wrote the controversial scene.

Tarantino got candid by saying that the “anal-rape torture sequence” was Avary’s idea, and argued that he personally wanted to do the scene “because it was a flip reworking of something that was a big deal in Deliverance,” referencing the 1972 movie starring Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight, in which one of the characters gets raped violently.

“This crazy, anal-sex rape was out of nowhere that I thought it was funny,” Tarantino said of the pawnshop rape scene in his own movie, Pulp Fiction. “I thought, Wow, he’s made anal rape really funny.”

The Playboy interview resurfaced just hours after Jezebel dug out a no less controversial interview of Tarantino, in which the renowned director defends disgraced director Roman Polanski, who pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

In the November 2003 interview with co-hosts Howard Stern and Robin Quivers, Tarantino defended the ostracized director who sexually assaulted the underage girl by saying that the 13-year-old victim “wanted to have it.”

Quivers then reminded Tarantino that the underage girl had been plied with alcohol and half a Quaalude before the assault, but the Hollywood director lashed out by saying, “Look, she was down with this.”

“He didn’t rape a 13-year-old. It was statutory rape…he had sex with a minor. That’s not rape,” Tarantino defended Polanski. “To me, when you use the word rape, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down—it’s like one of the most violent crimes in the world.”

The director then compared the word “rape” to “racist,” arguing that people shouldn’t throw these words around.

“It’s like throwing the word ‘racist’ around. It doesn’t apply to everything people use it for,” Tarantino said.

Tarantino is currently working on a movie about Charles Manson, a 1960s cult leader who died while serving a life sentence last year. In August 1969, Manson, who died in November 2017 aged 83, ordered his followers to invade the home of Hollywood actress Sharon Tate, who was married to Polanski at the time, to murder her and all other occupants in the house.

Polanski wasn’t in the house at the time of the gruesome massacre. Tate was eight months pregnant with Polanski’s baby when she was stabbed to death by Manson’s cult members.

Polanski was set to play in Tarantino’s upcoming movie, titled Untitled Quentin Tarantino/1969 Project, but the future of the film remains unclear due to the mounting criticism against Tarantino. The director is facing backlash after Thurman’s allegations as well as for his own comments from the 2003 interviews, which have resurfaced in recent days.

In the Times interview, Thurman also alleged that the director spat in her face and strangled her with a chain for scenes during the shooting of Kill Bill. In his defense, Tarantino had a lengthy interview with Deadline days after the Times published the disturbing piece. The director called the near-fatal car accident that gave Thurman a concussion and injured her knees “one of the biggest regrets” of his life.

After the controversy surrounding Tarantino made headlines, Diane Kruger rushed to the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s defense. The actress, who starred in his 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, wrote a statement in which she said her work experience with Tarantino was “pure joy.”

“He treated me with utter respect and never abused his power or forced me to do anything I wasn’t comfortable with,” Kruger wrote, according to People.

Amid the controversy, a video of Tarantino slapping a paparazzo has also been circulating on social media.