Emmanuelle Seigner, Roman Polanski's Wife, Slams Quentin Tarantino Over 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood'

Quentin Tarantino, a name associated with on-screen bloodshed as much as anything else, has always been a filmmaker that attracts a close eye, and often with a raised eyebrow. Sometimes it leads to discourse about the auteur’s alleged methods on set; for others, the pushback is much more aggressive. Disputes have even involved Hollywood legends, and figures he’s collaborated with for his films.

Now, with Tarantino’s newest movie, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” having premiered at Cannes just weeks ahead of opening stateside, the wife of another Hollywoodite, just as enigmatic and controversial, is calling out the Oscar-winning director for his creative choices.

Emmanuelle Seigner, the French actress and wife to Roman Polanski, took to Instagram with an older photo of her husband and Sharon Tate – his second wife and a character in Tarantino’s movie, played by Margot Robbie – to criticize his “using the tragic life of someone and then walking all over them” to tell a story.

“I am just saying that it doesn’t bother them [in Hollywood] to make a film which takes Roman and his tragic story… while at the same time they have made him a pariah. And all without consulting him of course,” she wrote.

READ MORE: ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’: Quentin Tarantino’s Entertaining Nostalgia Piece Brashly Breaks Its Own Woozy Spell [Cannes Review]

Seigner seems to be referring to Tarantino’s inclusion of Tate in his film. The former actress was a victim of the Manson Family, a bit of history that was the reason for trepidation early on when it was confirmed the Manson Murders would play a part in Tarantino’s next movie. With 2019, the 50th anniversary of Tate’s death, the sentiments surrounding the gruesome incident are understandably more charged and passionate, as shown by Seigner’s anger.

READ MORE: Quentin Tarantino Says ‘Once Upon A Time’ Was Originally Going To Be A Novel & Is Now His Version Of ‘Roma’

“Let the movie be good…I want to say,” Seigner goes on to write. “But the concept bothers me.”

Polanski is no stranger to controversy, either. The Oscar-winning director continues to avoid any return to the U.S., where he would be arrested by authorities for raping a 13-year-old girl 41 years ago. He also has a presence in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” portrayed by Rafal Zawierucha.

READ MORE: ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’: Quentin Tarantino’s Obsession With Revisionist History Continues [Cannes]

For his part, Tarantino reportedly met with Sharon’s sister, Debra Tate, to share details of sister’s role in the story—a meeting that she says put her mind at ease.

READ MORE: Quentin Tarantino Has Found His Roman Polanski For ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’

For as much of an event as a new Tarantino movie’s release still is (if the director sticks by his oft-repeated retire date, “Once Upon a Time…” is his penultimate movie) and as much excitement that they spurn, there is always an equal amount of fiery conversation to compensate. It’s even truer in 2019, and for a film in which he applies his typically hyperviolent sensibilities to a story based in real life and involving a beloved figure whose story ends in a tragedy like Sharon Tate.

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” opens in U.S. theaters on July 26.

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