Quentin Tarantino recalls reason of not having ‘Man-to-Man Talk’ with Harvey Weinstein

Quentin Tarantino recently appeared as guest on Chris Wallace’s HBO Max series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace as a part of his press tour for the promotion of his new book, Cinema Speculation. 

The host pressed Tarantino on his relationship with Harvey Weinstein, who is a disgraced film producer and has worked with Tarantino on nine movies. 

The two cut the ties amid Weinstein’s downfall in October 2017 over sexual harassment and assault.

Tarantino admitted that in the past he was aware of Weinstein’s behavior to some extent, but he ensured to Wallace that he never knew such behavior included sexual assault.

“I’d never heard the stories that later came out at all,” Tarantino said. “I heard the same stories that everybody had heard. What I wish I had done was talk to Harvey about it and say, ‘Harvey, you can’t do this.’ To tell you the truth, I chalked it up to a ‘Mad Men’-era version of the boss chasing the secretary around the desk. I’m not saying that’s ok. That’s how I heard it… in that category. There was never any talk of rape or anything like that.”

Tarantino continued, “The reason I didn’t [say something to Weinstein] was because that’s a real hard conversation to have. I felt it was pathetic. I felt what he was doing was pathetic and I didn’t want to deal with his pathetic-ness.”

“I didn’t think it was, ‘Ok, you do this for me or you’re not going to get this movie.’ I never heard any actresses say anything like that,” Tarantino concluded.

He added, “It was just you know, ‘Don’t get in the back of a limo with him.’ It was easy to compartmentalize that to some degree. Anyway, I feel bad about. What I feel bad about is I feel bad that I did not have a man-to-man talk with him about it.”

Back in 2017 Tarantino revealed that ex girlfriend Mira Sorvino confided in him about Weinstein’s sexual harassment. “I knew enough to do more than I did,” the director said at the time.