Before the advent of the #MeToo movement, nearly every Quentin Tarantino movie featured the name of now-disgraced Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein attached to them. He first joined the director with his breakout hit Reservoir Dogs after acquiring it out of Sundance in 1992 and worked with him up until the release of The Hateful Eight. His eventual downfall would kick off a reckoning in Hollywood with more and more powerful men finally being called out for their abhorrent behavior behind closed doors. Weinstein’s acts in particular were numerous and heinous. He’s still on trial in Los Angeles after already being convicted on one count of criminal sexual assault in the first degree and one count of rape in the third degree.
Speaking with CNN’s Chris Wallace for his series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, Tarantino was once again asked about his relationship with Weinstein and what he heard about the producer as a frequent collaborator. The director has long admitted that he knew of his inappropriate behavior with women, though none of the more serious allegations ever reached him. He’s also said he regrets not speaking up or having a conversation with the producer about what was going on, realizing he wrote off his acts of sexual harassment at the time. Thanks to his frequent work on Tarantino’s films, Weinstein had been close with the director to the point where Tarantino later referred to him as an “f—d up father figure” on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.
He reiterated his thoughts on the situation to Wallace, saying:
“I’d never heard the stories that later came out at all. I heard the same stories that everybody had heard. You know, frankly, 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 okay. There was never any talk of rape or anything like that. The reason I didn’t was because that’s a real hard conversation to have because I…I felt it was pathetic. I felt what he was doing was pathetic. And, and I didn’t want to deal with his pathetic-ness.”
What Exactly Did Tarantino Know About Weinstein?
Wallace pressed the director on what exactly the Hollywood lore surrounding Weinstein was and what he was known for doing to actresses. While he didn’t know of any “casting couch” or quid pro quo situations, the director elaborated on the negative air surrounding Weinstein even before the worst allegations come to light, adding:
“I didn’t think it was ‘Okay, you do this for me or you’re not going to get this movie’. And I never heard any actresses say anything like that. It was just you know, you know, ‘Just don’t get in the back of a limo with him’. Again, it was easy – it was easy – it was easy to compartmentalize it to some degree. Anyway, I feel bad about…look, I feel bad about it now. But what I…but what I feel bad about is I feel bad that I did not have a man to man talk with him about it.”
Full episodes of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? are available to stream on HBO Max and you can watch the trailer for She Said, a film that explores the New York Times investigation that uncovered Weinstein’s allegations, down below.
