Quentin Tarantino’s done answering questions about whether or not violence in movies causes violence in real life.
“The reason I don’t want to talk about it? Because I’ve said everything I have to say about it”. Tarantino said in an interview with British news reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy Thursday night.
“If anyone cares what I have to say about it, they can Google me and they can look for 20 years what I have to say,” Tarantino continued. “But I haven’t changed my opinion one iota.”
The filmmaker may love making violent films, but he has made it loud and clear that discussing real life violence is not his problem. When Guru-Murthy asked if he would still “flesh it out,” Tarantino responded, “It’s not my job to flesh it out.”
The reporter quickly defended himself and explained he was just doing his job, but Tarantino still slammed him with this remark: “And I’m shutting your butt down!”
The debate was first sparked when the unsuspecting reporter asked Tarantino if he was “sure there’s no link between enjoying violence and enjoying real life violence.” Tarantino immediately cut him off and refused to answer the question.
“I’m not your slave and you’re not my master,” Tarantino retorted. “You can’t make me dance to your tune. I’m not a monkey.”
It’s interesting that the director used the slave-master analogy considering the premise of his new movie, Django Unchained, which is what he thought he would be discussing in the interview.
“I’m here to sell my movie,” Tarantino said. “This is a commercial for the movie – make no mistake.”
Tarantino has already politely asked reporters to ‘give him a break’ for his violent films. At a press conference to promote Django Unchained the day after the Sandy Hook shooting, Tarantino told reporters, “I just think you know there’s violence in the world, tragedies happen, blame the playmakers. It’s a western. Give me a break.”
Despite all the flak, Django Unchained is still Tarantino’s highest grossing film and was just nominated for the Academy Awards’ ‘Best Picture.’
But Tarantino was left off the list for ‘Best Director’ this year, which could be the source of some of the rage he took out yesterday on poor Guru-Murthy.
The award-winning director not only refused to answer any of the reporter’s questions and give his own opinions on real life violence, but he also snubbed Guru-Murthy when he brought up Django Unchained star Jamie Foxx’s opinion that film violence does play a part in real life violence.
Tarantino didn’t let Guru-Murthy finish his sentence before he stopped him short with,”Then you should talk to Jamie Foxx about that. And I think he’s actually here, so you can!”
While Guru-Murthy successfully changed the subject and finished the interview with no more outbursts from Tarantino, he is probably wishing he did interview Foxx instead of Tarantino.
Watch Tarantino’s interview below.
[http://youtu.be/GrsJDy8VjZk]
