Amber Tamblyn credits herself with getting Quentin Tarantino to renounce longtime collaborator Harvey Weinstein — which she claims was difficult for the director because of his own daddy issues.
Tamblyn, 35, told Vulture that she and Tarantino, 55, “had a very long conversation and dinner, just the two of us. We had some bourbon … Quentin has a very — I won’t go into it because it’s his personal life — unhealthy past relationship with his own father. And so Harvey filled in a lot of those areas for him. So this, for him, was a larger psychological reckoning than just the guy who financed his movies. And he had to own that.”
Tamblyn said that after a lot of coaxing, she convinced him to talk to the New York Times about the disgraced producer, who has been accused of numerous incidents of sexual harassment and assault. Weinstein has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
“‘Don’t not do this because of your ego,'” Tamblyn recalled telling Tarantino. “‘If you care enough, not only about your legacy, but about the women that he harmed directly that you love, do it for them. Do it for me. If you care about me, do it for me.’ ”
She added, “He knew about Uma [Thurman] and Mira Sorvino, and he talked a lot about that. And that’s when he really said, ‘You’re right.’ ”
Sorvino, 50, accused Weinstein, 66, of blacklisting her from the industry after she rejected his advances, an allegation he has vehemently denied.
Thurman, 48, claimed that Weinstein assaulted her in a London hotel room. Weinstein denied the accusation, citing their “strong relationship” after the incident would have allegedly occurred.
In October 2017, Tarantino told the New York Times of Weinstein’s multiple sexual misconduct allegations, “I knew enough to do more than I did. There was more to it than just the normal rumors, the normal gossip. It wasn’t secondhand. I knew he did a couple of these things … 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.”
Tamblyn also addressed the apparent conflict of interest between her work with the Time’s Up movement and allegations of racist and sexist behavior plaguing her husband David Cross, which resurfaced after his “Arrested Development” co-star Jeffrey Tambor was accused of harassing fellow co-star Jessica Walter.
“There are different types of f—king-up,” Tamblyn said. “There’s David Cross handling an interview really poorly with his friend Jessica of 15 years. When I read it, I rolled my eyes and reached out to Jessica. I didn’t check in with David. And I just went, ‘What a dummy. What a stupid thing to do. You just couldn’t keep your mouth shut.’ ”
She added, “But there’s another kind of f—k-up that’s not acceptable. And that is, like, Matt Lauer locking a door with a button behind his desk.”
Tamblyn believes Tarantino and Cross have changed for the better following their respective educations at her hand.