Adding to the long and growing list of stars who have leveled accusations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein, actress Uma Thurman shared shocking details of her experience with the producer. In a new interview with the New York Times, Uma explains confronting Weinstein and feeling like her former agency Creative Arts Agency was complicit in his behavior.
She grappled with the guilt of not having come forward sooner, feeling as though her words could have protected other young actresses from the same fate. "The complicated feeling I have about Harvey is how bad I feel about all the women that were attacked after I was…I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did," she explained.
Thurman and Weinstein have a long working and personal history, from Pulp Fiction to Kil Bill, and it was something he would leverage against her when she rebuffed his advances and, eventually, confronted him. "I knew him pretty well before he attacked me," she told the Times. "He used to spend hours talking to me about material and complimenting my mind and validating me. It possibly made me overlook warning signs."
Last fall, around the time when stories about Weinstein had just begun to surface, Thurman alluded to having a lot to say regarding the allegations, but didn't offer any details at the time.
She described the initial attack that took place in a London hotel where Weinstein was staying. "He pushed me down. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things," she explained. "But he didn’t actually put his back into it and force me. You’re like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard. I was doing anything I could to get the train back on the track. My track. Not his track."
The next day, Weinstein sent an oversized floral arrangement with a card that read, "You have great instincts." She would later try to confront him about the incident, warning him that if his behavior continued with other actresses, he would lose his career, reputation, and family. It was in this same meeting that Weinstein threatened to use his immense Hollywood power to derail Thurman's career, much like he has done to other actresses.
Following Thurman's interview, Harvey Weinstein released a statement claiming her statements were untrue.
Since the initial New York Times exposé, more than 50 women have come forward accusing Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
Unfortunately, her coming face-to-face with abuse in the industry didn't stop there. Thurman recounted another experience from the set of Kill Bill, where she says she was pressured by the film's director Quentin Tarantino to drive a car she felt was unsafe for a scene despite asking that a stunt double do it. “[Quentin] was furious because I’d cost them a lot of time. But I was scared," she said. She alleges Tarantino instructed her to get to up to specific speed for the shot, or be forced to redo the scene. “‘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." The argument escalated when Thurman told Tarantino that she felt he was trying to kill her. "He was very angry at that, I guess understandably because he didn’t feel he had tried to kill me,” she added.
Tarantino has not offered comment in response to the allegations.
