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Diane Kruger Defends Her Experience With Quentin Tarantino: Working With Him Was ‘Pure Joy’

Diane Kruger and Quentin Tarantino attend ELLE's 17th Annual Women in Hollywood Tribute at The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
Diane Kruger and Quentin Tarantino attend ELLE's 17th Annual Women in Hollywood Tribute at The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Diane Kruger defended Quentin Tarantino on Tuesday, February 6, saying her experience working with the director on Inglourious Basterds in 2009 was “pure joy.”

“In light of the recent allegations made by Uma Thurman against Harvey Weinstein and her terrifying work experience on Kill Bill, my name has been mentioned in numerous articles in regards to the choking scene in Inglourious Basterds,” Kruger wrote in an Instagram post. “This is an important moment in time and my heart goes out to Uma and anyone who has ever been the victim of sexual assault and abuse. I stand with you.”

The 41-year-old actress continued, “for the record however, I would like to say that my work experience with Quentin Tarantino was pure joy. He treated me with utter respect and never abused his power or forced me to do anything I wasn’t comfortable with. With love, D xoxo.”

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In an interview published by The New York Times on Saturday, Uma Thurman claimed that Tarantino bullied her into driving an unsafe convertible during the filming of 2003’s Kill Bill. Though Thurman, 47, requested a stunt driver, she claims he refused. 

“He said, ‘I promise you the car is fine. It’s a straight piece of road,’” she recalled to the paper. But Thurman lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree, suffering a concussion and damage to her back and legs.

Uma Thurman, Harvey Weinstein
Uma Thurman and Harvey Weinstein attend the 2016 amfAR New York Gala at Cipriani Wall Street on February 10, 2016 in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

Tarantino, 54, responded to the allegations on Tuesday, calling his decision to get her to perform the stunt, “the biggest regret of my life.”

Related: Hollywood’s Sexual Misconduct Scandals

“I am guilty, for putting her in that car, but not the way that people are saying I am guilty of it,” he told Deadline. “It was just driving. None of us looked at it as a stunt. Maybe we should have, but we didn’t. I’m sure when it was brought up to me, that I rolled my eyes and was irritated. But I’m sure I wasn’t in a rage and I wasn’t livid.”

Tarantino added that he and Thurman didn’t speak for three years. “A trust was broken,” he told Deadline. “A trust broken over a year of shooting, of us doing really gnarly stuff. Doing really big stunt stuff. I wanted her to do as much as possible and we were trying to take care of her and we pulled it off. She didn’t get hurt. And then the last four days, in what we thought would be a simple driving shot, almost kills her.”

Related: Channing Tatum, Laura Dern, Jane Fonda and More Speak Out Against Harvey Weinstein Amid Sexual Misconduct Scandal

On the same day that the Pulp Fiction writer addressed Thurman’s accusations, audio emerged of him defending director Roman Polanski’s sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in 1977, saying she was “down with it.”

“He didn’t rape a 13-year-old,” Tarantino said during a 2003 interview with Howard Stern. “It was statutory rape . . .  he had sex with a minor. That’s not rape. To me, when you use the world rape, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down — it’s like one of the most violent crimes in the world. Throwing the word rape around. It doesn’t apply to everything people use it for.”

Us Weekly has reached out to Tarantino’s rep for comment.

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