Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino says he had known for decades about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinsteins misconduct towards women, and now feels ashamed that he did not take a stand and stop working with him.
“I knew enough to do more than I did. There was more to it than just the normal rumours, the normal gossip. It wasn’t second hand. I knew he did a couple of these things,” Tarantino told nytimes.com.
“I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard. If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him,” he added.
Tarantino said his former girlfriend Mira Sorvino told him about unwanted touching by Weinstein. Another actress told him a similarly upsetting story years later. He also knew that actress Rose McGowan had reached a settlement with the producer.
Though he continued to hear many other allegations over the years, he proceeded to make film after film with Weinstein — a decision he now regrets.
“What I did was marginalise the incidents. Anything I say now will sound like a crappy excuse,” he said.
Since 1992, Weinstein and Tarantino have worked together in films like “Reservoir Dogs”, “Pulp Fiction”, the “Kill Bill” series, “Inglourious Basterds” and “The Hateful Eight”.
