Diane Kruger has commented on her experience with director Quentin Tarantino, with whom she worked on the 2009 film Inglourious Basterds.
Tarantino recently recounted the shooting of an Inglourious Basterds scene in which Kruger's character was strangled. The director detailed the scene to Deadline after speaking on a similar shot involving Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. In a recent New York Times piece, Thurman accused Tarantino of pressuring her to drive a car instead of using a stunt double during this shot, leading her to be injured. In both instances, Tarantino claimed, he had requested (and been given) permission from the actresses to shoot the scenes in this manner.
"In light of the recent allegations made by Uma Thurman against Harvey Weinstein and her terrifying work experience on Kill Bill, my name has been mentioned in numerous articles in regards to the choking scene in Inglourious Basterds," Kruger said in an Instagram caption Tuesday. "This is an important moment in time and my heart goes out to Uma and anyone who has ever been the victim of sexual assault and abuse. I stand with you. For the record however, I would like to say that my work experience with Quentin Tarantino was pure joy. He treated me with utter respect and never abused his power or forced me to do anything I wasn't comfortable with."
Tarantino, speaking with Deadline, also elaborated further on the on-set Kill Bill car crash involving Thurman. "It affected me and Uma for the next two to three years," Tarantino, who ran the road prior to shooting the scene, said. "It wasn't like we didn’t talk. But a trust was broken. A trust broken over a year of shooting, of us doing really gnarly stuff. Doing really big stunt stuff. I wanted her to do as much as possible and we were trying to take care of her and we pulled it off. She didn't get hurt. And then the last four days, in what we thought would be a simple driving shot, almost kills her."
Though Tarantino said he ran the road and found no obstacles prior to shooting, a last-minute production change resulted in Thurman driving in the opposite direction. "That was one of my most horrendous mistakes, that I didn't take the time to run the road, one more time, just to see what I would see," he said.
In her Timespiece, published over the weekend, Thurman also recalled being "attacked" by Kill Bill executive producer Weinstein. "I knew him pretty well before he attacked me," Thurman said. "He used to spend hours talking to me about material and complimenting my mind and validating me. It possibly made me overlook warning signs. This was my champion. I was never any kind of studio darling. He had a chokehold on the type of films and directors that were right for me."
Weinstein was a producing partner on a number of critically and commercially successful Tarantino films, including Django Unchained and his breakout 1994 hit Pulp Fiction, which also starred Thurman.
