Veteran actor Uma Thurman who is well-known for her collaboration with Quentin Tarantino has revealed recently in a free-wheeling interview that she was raped and sexually assaulted by the then Miramax chief and Hollywood movie mogul, producer Harvey Weinstein.
She recalled how after the release of the film, Pulp Fiction, produced by Weinstein, she had gone to meet Weinstein in a hotel where he tried to pull a fast one on her by revealing himself and forcing her to visit the sauna with him. She says that she escaped somehow but, it didn’t end with just that.
Post the release of the movie, she met Weinstein for the first time along with his former wife.
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She said, “He used to spend hours talking to me about the 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.”
The assault, she reveled, happened at his suite at The Savoy, London. The now-beleaguered producer tried to force himself on her and molested her despite her constant protests.
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“He pushed me down. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things. 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.”
He later sent her a large “vulgar” bunch of roses with a note telling her: “You have great instincts.”
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Weinstein confirmed to the New York Times that he had apologised to Thurman at the time for what called “misreading her signals”.
Later, she accepted an offer to meet Weinstein in a hotel room to clear the matter. She went with a friend but, pressurized by the producer’s secretaries, she had to leave her behind and meet him in his room where she claims that she was badly assaulted.
The producer apparently pressurised the actor to not reveal about the incident as he threatened her with leaking their pictures, she revealed in the interview.
The production of the movie ‘Kill Bill’ again brought Thurman and Weinstein together.
Thurman confided in their director Quentin Tarantino about the incident at Paris hotel, who further confronted Harvey and that ended their abusive work relationship.
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After this, she severed all ties with him immediately while, Weinstein stopped doing projects with her.
She also alleged that during the filming of Kill Bill 2, Tarantino made her drive a refurbished car that she was not comfortable driving. He insisted, she agreed under pressure and the car met with an accident because of which she was hurt badly on her neck and knees.
In a tearful confession she said, “I went from being a creative contributor and performer to being like a broken tool.” She described the car crash incident on location in Mexico as “dehumanisation to the point of death”. Tarantino prohibited using a stunt person despite her repeated protests leading to permanent injuries and loss of a thriving career.
“Harvey assaulted me but that didn’t kill me,” she said. “What really got me about the crash was that it was a cheap shot. I had been through so many rings of fire by that point.”
She also shared a video of the car crash with the publication which took her 15 years to procure and was given to her only after she complained to the police and took legal action.
Team Weinstein’s reply to Thurman’s accusations was: “Mr Weinstein acknowledges making an awkward pass 25 years ago at Ms Thurman in England after misreading her signals, after a flirtatious exchange in Paris, for which he immediately apologised and deeply regrets. However, her claims about being physically assaulted are untrue. And this is the first time we have heard those details.
There was no physical contact during Mr Weinstein’s awkward pass and Mr. Weinstein is saddened and puzzled as to “why” Ms Thurman, someone he considers a colleague and a friend, waited 25 years to make these allegations.
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