Audio has emerged of Quentin Tarantino defending Roman Polanski's alleged rape of a 13-year-old.

Quentin Tarantino defended accused rapist Roman Polanski in a 2003 interview with Howard Stern, claiming 13-year-old Samantha Geimer (née Samantha Gailey) was “down to party” with the director when he drugged her and raped her.

In audio unearthed and released by Jezebel, Tarantino engages in a heated debate with Stern and radio personality Robin Quivers over the accusations levelled at Tarantino that date back to 1977.

Before fleeing the Unites States prior to being sentenced, Polanski plead guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

“How come Hollywood embraces this madman, this director who raped a 13-year-old?” Stern asked Tarantino.

“He didn’t rape a 13-year-old,” the director replied. “It was statutory rape… he had sex with a minor. That’s not rape. To me, when you use the word rape, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down—it’s like one of the most violent crimes in the world. You can’t throw the word rape around. It’s like throwing the word ‘racist’ around. It doesn’t apply to everything people use it for.”

The debate went on, with Tarantino taking issue with Stern’s claims Polanski’s victim did not want to have sex with the then 43-year-old.

“No, that was not the case AT ALL. She wanted to have it and dated the guy and…,” he said, before being cut off by Quivers exclaiming “she was 13!”

“And by the way,” Tarantino added, “we’re talking about America’s morals, not talking about the morals in Europe and everything.

“Wait a minute,” Stern replied, “if you have sex with a 13-year-old girl and you’re a grown man, you know that that’s wrong.”

“Look, she was down with this,” Tarantino said.

Tarantino went on to say Polanski isn’t “a friend or anything” – in fact, he claimed they had only met once prior to 2003 – but that Polanski’s version of events “sounds more likely”, saying 13-year-old Geimer was “down to party with Roman”.

Prior to the assault, it’s alleged Polanski plied the teenager with drugs and alcohol.

The emergence of the audio comes just days after Uma Thurman detailed an experience on 2003’s Kill Bill where Tarantino forced her to perform a driving stunt she did not feel comfortable doing.

“Quentin came in my trailer and didn’t like to hear no, like any director,” she told the New York Times this week. “He was furious because I’d cost them a lot of time. But I was scared. He said: ‘I promise you the car is fine. It’s a straight piece of road.’” He persuaded her to do it, and instructed: “ ‘Hit 40 miles per hour or your hair won’t blow the right way and I’ll make you do it again.’ But that was a deathbox that I was in. The seat wasn’t screwed down properly. It was a sand road and it was not a straight road.”

Because the seat wasn’t screwed down properly, Thurman said the car drifted off the road and smashed into a palm tree. Thurman received neck and knee injuries from the crash which she still suffers today.

In October last year, Tarantino acknowledged he was aware of some sexual assault allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein – a man he had worked with on numerous occasions.

“I knew enough to do more than I did,” he told the New York Times. “There was more to it than just the normal rumours, the normal gossip. It wasn’t secondhand. I knew he did a couple of these things.”

“I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard,” he added. “If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him.”