Bill Maher Makes Shocking Joke About White Actor Who ‘Pulls Off Indian Roles Perfectly’

Outspoken filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and Bill Maher had a lengthy discussion of actors playing characters of other races that included a shocking joke about Robert Blake and the murder of his wife.

Tarantino was a guest on this week’s edition of Maher’s Club Random Podcast, during which the pair frequently revisited the topic of actors playing roles outside their race or sexual identity.

Those conversations veered from the strange — both Tarantino and Maher spontaneously agreed that the HAL 9000 computer from 2001 was definitely gay — to the shocking.

While discussing miscasting Native Americans in Boomer-era films, Maher agreed with Tarantino that Blake made a convincing Indian, and underscored the point with a race-based joke involving the murder of Blake’s wife that kicked off a lengthy and weird digression:

BILL MAHER: Speaking if casting an Indian as an Indian. The Indian woman who Robert Blake is involved with is played by Katharine Ross, late of The Graduate year before, two years before, where she’s playing a debutante. So you could be a debutante in one movie and a year later, be an Indian.

QUENTIN TARANTINO: Well, the sad thing about it is Robert Blake pulls off Indian roles perfectly. (Yeah, yeah.) Perfectly! No, no issue there. All right. He’s great. Yeah. Katharine Ross is terrible

BILL MAHER: Including when he killed his squaw outside of a restaurant in the valley. He snuck up behind her and scalped her while he w — remember that story? He went back to get his gun. Was that the —

QUENTIN TARANTINO: The — well, there were — well, you know, he was on trial, and he was found, and he was found not guilty.

BILL MAHER: I used to see him at the Playboy Mansion.

QUENTIN TARANTINO: I was friendly with him.

BILL MAHER: Yeah, he’s like somebody. If he hadn’t killed his wife, you would’ve revived his career.

QUENTIN TARANTINO: Well, yeah. Well, yeah. Okay. Well, one, we don’t know if he killed his wife. He went to jail. He went to on trial, and he was found not guilty.

BILL MAHER: He definitely killed his wife!

Watch above via Bill Maher’s Club Random Podcast.

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