Uma Thurman Reveals that Harvey Weinsten Sexually Attacked Her, Discusses Rift With Quentin Tarantino Over Car Accident While Filming Kill Bill

The New York Times recently interviewed Uma Thurman (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction), who revealed that disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein previously tried to attack her in 2001. She also discussed her relationship with director and Kill Bill filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and how their relationship went bad after she was injured during a car scene she was reluctant to shoot while filming. Below are some highlights.

Thurman on her complicated feelings about Weinstein and how bad she feels: “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. Quentin used Harvey as the executive producer of ‘Kill Bill,’ a movie that symbolizes female empowerment. And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do.”

Thurman on being a person who was subjected to Weinstein’s behavior and also part of the cloud that covered his behavior up: “I stand as both a person who was subjected to it and a person who was then also part of the cloud cover, so that’s a super weird split to have.”

Thurman on how she previously expressed anger over the situation and how she feels: “I used the word ‘anger’ but I was more worried about crying, to tell you the truth. I was not a groundbreaker on a story I knew to be true. So what you really saw was a person buying time.”

Uma Thurman on how she was raped by an actor 20 years older than her when she was 16 and living in Manhattan and starting her movie career: “I was ultimately compliant. I tried to say no, I cried, I did everything I could do. He told me the door was locked but I never ran over and tried the knob. When I got home, I remember I stood in front of the mirror and I looked at my hands and I was so mad at them for not being bloody or bruised. Something like that tunes the dial one way or another, right? You become more compliant or less compliant, and I think I became less compliant.”

Thurman on how well she knew Weinstein before he attacked her: “I knew him pretty well before he attacked me. 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.”

Thurman on an odd experience she had with Weinstein before he attacked her the first time: “I didn’t feel threatened. I thought he was being super idiosyncratic, like this was your kooky, eccentric uncle. Then I followed him through a door and it was a steam room. And I was standing there in my full black leather outfit — boots, pants, jacket. And it was so hot and I said, ‘This is ridiculous, what are you doing?’ And he was getting very flustered and mad and he jumped up and ran out. It went right over my head.”

Uma Thurman on how Weinstein pushed her down and tried to himself on her at the Savoy Hotel in London after that: “It was such a bat to the head. 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.”

Uma Thurman on her relationship with Quentin Tarantino and how he wanted her to drive in a car scene she was reluctant to film herself: “Quentin came in my trailer and didn’t like to hear no, like any director. 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.’ [Tarantino told her] ‘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.”

Thurman on the experience after the car smashed into a tree: “The steering wheel was at my belly and my legs were jammed under me. I felt this searing pain and thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m never going to walk again,’” she says. “When I came back from the hospital in a neck brace with my knees damaged and a large massive egg on my head and a concussion, I wanted to see the car and I was very upset. Quentin and I had an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me. And he was very angry at that, I guess understandably, because he didn’t feel he had tried to kill me.”

Uma Thurman on how bad things were between her and Tarantino: “We were in a terrible fight for years. We had to go through promoting the movies. It was all very thin ice. We had a fateful fight at Soho House in New York in 2004 and we were shouting at each other because he wouldn’t let me see the footage and he told me that was what they had all decided.”

Uma Thurman on what really hurt things with her and Tarantino over the crash: “Harvey assaulted me but that didn’t kill me. 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. I had really always felt a connection to the greater good in my work with Quentin and most of what I allowed to happen to me and what I participated in was kind of like a horrible mud wrestle with a very angry brother. But at least I had some say, you know?” She says she didn’t feel disempowered by any of it. Until the crash.”