NEW YORK — Director Quentin Tarantino has responded to Uma Thurman’s allegation that he put her life in danger with a dangerous car stunt on “Kill Bill,” calling the incident “the biggest regret of my life.”
But just as he was making amends for that incident, the director was being excoriated on social media Tuesday for remarks he made in a 2003 interview with Howard Stern that resurfaced online, seemingly defending Roman Polanski for having sex with a 13-year-old girl, saying the victim “wanted to have it” and was “down to party” with Polanski.
The incident involving Thurman became public on Saturday, in a New York Times column in which the actress recounted Tarantino’s persuading her to drive a car on the Mexico set that she had been warned might be faulty. She said she expressed fear and asked that a stunt driver do it instead. An irritated Tarantino convinced her to do it, she said, and she crashed into a tree, suffering what she said was permanent neck damage, a concussion and damage to her knees. Video that Thurman provided the Times — provided to her by Tarantino himself — shows her struggling to control the car before crashing, and then being carried out of the car.
In an interview with Deadline published Monday, Tarantino disputed some of the details in the Times account but said he had indeed persuaded Thurman that she could do the stunt, although not as angrily as described. “I didn’t force her into the car,” he told Deadline.
