It’s commonplace for Quentin Tarantino to court controversy every time he releases a film, for his trademark gruesome violence and frequent use of the N-word in his scripts. This year however, it’s not his work – in this case his eighth film, The Hateful Eight – that’s landed him in trouble. It’s his activism.

It all began in October, when Tarantino flew in to New York to join three days of protests organized by Rise Up October, a group opposed to police violence and what it calls a “genocidal assault on black and Latino people in this country”. Speaking to families of police brutality victims, Tarantino was quoted as saying: “I’m here to say I’m on the side of the murdered.”

New York’s largest police union responded to Tarantino’s participation and use of the word “murdered” by urging a boycott of his films, led by Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. A number of other US police unions have since joined in the call for a boycott, followed by a threat issued from the Fraternal Order of Police, who told the Hollywood Reporter they had “something in the works” for the release of The Hateful Eight in December.

“I knew the police were going to be mad at me,” Quentin Tarantino tells the Guardian, referencing his comments made at the rally. “I knew they weren’t going to kiss me for what I was doing.”

Quentin Tarantino speaking at anti-police brutality protest in October in New York. Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Tarantino, seated in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills during a press day on Sunday to promote The Hateful Eight, admits he was trepidatious about participating in the demonstration for that reason, and because he was wary of alienating police officers who are fans of his films.

He says the period immediately following the initial blowout was the toughest to weather, because he was still in the final stages of completing The Hateful Eight. “I was actually wrapping,” he says, “and this stuff is coming out everyday, with the media capitalizing on it. I was like: ‘What the hell is going on?’”

“I knew there would be some people who wouldn’t get it, or wouldn’t understand my intentions,” he says. “But I had to do it anyway. And it goes without saying: I don’t feel that every officer is a killer.”

The film-maker clarified as much in the wake of the boycott, saying on MSBNC in November: “Just because I was at an anti-police brutality protest doesn’t mean I’m anti-police.”

Tarantino says: “It was good to clarify, because I could actually get a little deeper in the subject, and express myself a little bit more. As I got to the end of that week, it was almost like: ‘Wow, that actually ended up being far more effective than I could’ve ever imagined.’ At first, it seemed like it was a distraction. They’re going to make hay out of me, as opposed to the issues that we’re talking about. It was an exercise in distraction. Then, it ended up getting back around to the police brutality issue.”



Quentin Tarantino: ‘I actually felt kind of vindicated, at least by the people I wanted to be vindicated about.’ Photograph: Kena Betancur/Getty Images

Still, Tarantino says the Fraternal Order of Police’s cryptic taunt surprised him a great deal. “The fact that they would overreact to such a degree, and single me out to such a degree, and then get so carried away that they literally get out over their skis, and actually, are indulging in theoretical threats of a private citizen, no, I did not expect that at all.

“Some people are truly condemning the cops for the threatening dialogue that they were using,” Tarantino adds.

“I actually felt kind of vindicated, at least by the people I wanted to be vindicated about. If they had just said: ‘Ah, Quentin’s an ass, he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about, he’s an out-of-touch celebrity, who gives a fuck what he says?’ I mean, that would have been that. By them making such a big deal about it, the subject ended up being in the press and on television – and people had to start making their own minds up about it in a way that wasn’t happening before.”

Tarantino insists his crusade against police violence is far from over. “Right now, [promoting The Hateful Eight] is my full-time job,” says Tarantino. “But when this is over, I want to go further with this.”