UPDATED 6:10 p.m. ET: Fergie has offered clarification to the recent flurry of articles on Quentin Tarantino biting her on the set of Planet Terror. "First off, I stand with victims everywhere no matter what genre, race, gender, age. I stand with victims period, and I don't want to take away from anyone's story," Fergie said to ET’s Katie Krause. "That just wasn't my story." Fergie continued, "We were just kind of having banter. We were having a little bit of fun," the singer explained.
Original story below:
It looks like there's more smoke to the Quentin Tarantino #MeToo fire.
In a special bonus feature for the DVD of Grindhouse, which includes Tarantino’s Death Proof and Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror, Fergie, who starred in the latter, alleges the Tarantino bit her when they were working out a scene. Without falling down a rabbit hole of moral equivalency, the incident (however inappropriate) doesn’t seem to have fazed the actress. Perhaps what makes this documented allegation particularly disturbing, is the way it jibes with other narratives about Tarantino’s long history of abusing women on set.
In the feature, Ferie explains that Tarantino was acting out a zombie scene with her, when the alleged bite occurred.
“So I’m doing the scene, right,” says Fergie one of the interviews on the DVD, “And he starts biting me.” In a clip, you see Tarantino tackle Fergie. The singer/actress laughs and says, “Fucker, get off me.”
In another interview, Rodriguez validates the claim, but downplays it, saying, “It wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t like a bite, she wasn’t bleeding or anything. Certainly you felt some teeth on flesh. It happens, people get into the role.”
I’ll leave it you to decide if this story is being blown out of proportion or if it’s symptomatic of a culture that normalizes abusive behavior towards women.
Rose McGowan and Uma Thurman have previously come forward with much more disturbing accusations against Tarantino, and neither of these women are laughing it off. However, not every actress looks at Tarantino’s unorthodox working habits the same way. Diane Kruger defending the director and described working with him as “pure joy.”
