Thursday, March 28, 2024

Ava DuVernay Not Surprised by Quentin Tarantino’s Criticism of ‘Selma’

ava-tarantino*Ava DuVernay is finally sharing her thoughts about director Quentin Tarantino’s less-than-favorite views on her film “Selma.” Last month, during an interview with “American Psycho” author Bret Easton Ellis for T Magazine, Quentin was quoted as saying the film was worthy of an Emmy, but perhaps not an Oscar, for which it was nominated for best picture.

“She did a really good job on ‘Selma’ but ‘Selma’ deserved an Emmy,” he said.

Tarantino later backpedaled on these comments in an email to IndieWire, writing:

“I’m writing you to pass on that the quote from the NY Times piece about ‘Selma’ is wrong. I never saw ‘Selma.’ If you look at the article, it was Bret who was talking about ‘Selma,’ not me. I did say the line ‘it deserved a Emmy,’ but when I said it, it was more like a question.

Which basically meant, ‘it’s like a TV movie?’ Which Bret and myself being from the same TV generation, was not only understood, but there was no slam intended. Both Bret and myself come from the seventies and eighties when there were a lot of historically based TV movies: the King mini-series written by Abby Mann starring Paul Winfield; ‘Crisis at Central High’ with Joanne Woodward. And ‘Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys.’ These were great TV movies. I’d be honored to be placed next to those films. However, I haven’t seen it. Does it look like a seventies TV movie? Yes. Does it play like one, I don’t know, I haven’t seen it.”

While she didn’t respond immediately, the outspoken filmmaker revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that she wasn’t surprised by Tarantinos’ comments, unlike others.

“I was surprised by how surprised everyone was. When you look at his work and his persona, there’s nothing surprising about what he said,” she explained. “But it didn’t bother me like so many assumed it would.”

DuVernay, who was the first black woman to win the best director award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, told HuffPost Live last month that the biggest problem in Hollywood “is that there’s not balance. It’s imbalanced. We’re seeing too many films with only one voice, from one dominant white, male, straight gaze … and everything else is lopsided.”

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