Quentin Tarantino apologizes for his role as devil’s advocate in the rape of a 13-year-old girl by Roman Polanski

Quentin Tarantino publicly apologizes for highly controversial comments he made in a resurfaced 2003 interview with Howard Stern.

“I wrongly played devil’s advocate in the debate in order to provoke,” Tarantino said in a statement. “I did not take (his victim’s) feelings into account and for that I am sincerely sorry.”

Earlier this week, an audio recording circulated of Tarantino claiming that Roman Polanski’s then 13-year-old victim, Samantha Geimer, “wanted it”: “That’s rape, he had sex with a minor, that’s not rape,” Tarantino said, despite Stern’s objections.

After Stern’s co-host Robin Quivers noted that the girl had been drugged with Quaaludes and alcohol, Tarantino continued: “No, that wasn’t the case at all. She wanted it and went out with the guy.”

“Wait a minute,” Stern interrupted. “You’re having sex with a 13-year-old girl and you’re a grown man. You know that’s wrong because you don’t…”

The “Pulp Fiction” director replied, “See, she was okay with it,” and called the child a “party girl.”

Tarantino’s full apology can be found below:

For her part, Samantha Geimer told the New York Daily News that Tarantino was “wrong,” but “nobody has to be mad at me. I’m fine.”

“I don’t care what people think. It makes no difference in my life. I know what happened. I don’t need other people to tell me what it’s like to be raped at 13,” she said.