While Quentin Tarantino is capable of serving up fascinating bite-sized morsels of quotables, the writer/director is at his best when given the space to go long, and his recent stop on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast allows him to do just that. You might recall the last time the duo paired up, for an Ellis-penned profile on the director in The New York Times, it ignited a minor controversy surrounding Tarantino’s comments about Ava DuVernay‘s "Selma." And that’s the leaping off point in this latest chat, well, at least for Ellis.
The writer spends the opening twenty minutes or so sounding off about "victim culture" and "clueless social justice warriors" who, in Ellis’s opinion, want to find offense where there is none and only want to hear their own opinions reflected back upon them. It’s a bit exhausting, but once you get past that, Tarantino is fascinating as usual to listen to. He discusses "The Hateful Eight" (warning, there is some semi spoiler-y stuff you might want to skip over) and how he thinks it’s the "best direction of my material" to date. The director also talks about screenwriting, ’70s New Hollywood cinema, and much more.
Take a listen to the full talk below.