Quentin Tarantino said “all cops are not murderers” in an interview intended to quell a nationwide police boycott of his films over his recent statements on police brutality.
“All cops are not murderers,” Tarantino told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday in his first public response to the controversy that flared up over his participation in a New York City rally on October 24. “I never said that. I never even implied that.”
The director, whose next film, “The Hateful Eight,” premieres on Christmas Day, continued:
“What they’re doing is pretty obvious. Instead of dealing with the incidents of police brutality that those people were bringing up, instead of examining the problem of police brutality in this country, better they single me out. And their message is very clear. It’s to shut me down. It’s to discredit me. It is to intimidate me. It is to shut my mouth, and even more important than that, it is to send a message out to any other prominent person that might feel the need to join that side of the argument.”
While insisting that “I’m not a cop hater,” the director declined to apologize for comments that he believes have been misrepresented. “I’m not taking back what I said. What I said was the truth. I’m used to people misrepresenting me; I’m used to being misunderstood.”
Tarantino’s longtime studio partner, The Weinstein Company, also addressed the controversy on Tuesday, noting its “longstanding relationship and friendship with Quentin,” and that the company has “a tremendous amount of respect for him as a filmmaker. We don’t speak for Quentin, he can and should be allowed to speak for himself.”
Comments from Tarantino calling cops “murderers” 10 days ago have snowballed into a widespread protest that could impact his forthcoming awards hopeful “The Hateful Eight.”
Tarantino participated in an anti-police brutality rally in New York on October 24. The filmmaker angered police on both coasts when addressing a crowd of protesters at the rally in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park.
“When I see murders, I do not stand by… I have to call a murder a murder, and I have to call the murderers the murderers,” the “Django Unchained” director said.
The rally came four days after NYPD Officer Randolph Holder was fatally shot in the head while chasing a gunman in East Harlem. When asked about the timing of the rally, Tarantino called it “unfortunate.”