Ava DuVernay Fires Back at Quentin Tarantino After ‘Selma’ Diss

"When you look at his work and his persona, there's nothing surprising about what he said," the director tells THR in response to Tarantino saying the Oscar-nominated civil rights film "deserved an Emmy."

November 25, 2015 6:00am

Ava DuVernay Fires Back Quentin Tarantino — Ava DuVernay - H 2015
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This story first appeared in the Dec. 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

The uproar was swift when Quentin Tarantino dismissed Ava DuVernay and Selma, telling Bret Easton Ellis in T: The New York Times Style Magazine that the Oscar-nominated civil rights drama “deserved an Emmy.” (He later clarified he never had seen the movie.)

But DuVernay now is responding to Tarantino’s insult, taking a swipe of her own. “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 tells THR. “But it didn’t bother me like so many assumed it would.”