Uma Thurman Accuses Harvey Weinstein of Sexual Assault

Uma Thurman accuses Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault in an interview that published this morning. In the same interview, she also relates how she was raped as a minor early in her actress career, and that a film stunt for Quentin Tarantino nearly killed her.

Uma Thurman with Harvey Weistein at a past event.

Back in October on the red carpet for her new film, , Thurman had referred to the Weinstein scandal and hinted that she too had something to tell about Weinstein’s inappropriate behavior as an actress in films he produced.

By November, Thurman figuratively unleashed her Beatrix Kiddo — the rage-filled Bride/assassin character she portrayed brilliantly from Tarantino’s Kill Bill films — on Weinstein by posting a photo of her portraying the character on her Instagram account, along with a statement directly referring to Weinstein and the #MeToo movement:

H A P P Y T H A N K S G I V I N G I am grateful today, to be alive, for all those I love, and for all those who have the courage to stand up for others. I said I was angry recently, and I have a few reasons, #metoo, in case you couldn’t tell by the look on my face. I feel it’s important to take your time, be fair, be exact, so… Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators – I’m glad it’s going slowly – you don’t deserve a bullet) -stay tuned Uma Thurman

A post shared by Uma Thurman (@ithurman) on Nov 23, 2017 at 12:58pm PST

Quote:

I am grateful today, to be alive, for all those I love, and for all those who have the courage to stand up for others.
I said I was angry recently, and I have a few reasons, #metoo, in case you couldn’t tell by the look on my face.
I feel it’s important to take your time, be fair, be exact, so… Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators – I’m glad it’s going slowly – you don’t deserve a bullet) -stay tuned 
Uma Thurman

The Instagram post couldn’t have been more apt — The Bride is declaring that she has been on “a roaring rampage of revenge” of killing people, and she has only one more to go — that she’s “going to kill Bill.” Clearly, just as the vengence-driven female avatar in the Kill Bill films, Thurman has been waiting for the right moment to take her pound of flesh from Harvey Weinstein. She related that she was trying not to be overwhelmed by emotions when she was back on the red carpet, and she waited to tell her part of the story at what she felt was the right moment.

In many ways, Thurman’s resolve, her cool-headed and measured decisions in how she would tell her story and simultaneously exact her vengence on Harvey Weinstein are the perfect examples of how women should now be perceived in this new age of fairness and flinty determination that contemporary women have in the new millennium. She’s rightfully angry that she was attacked when younger, and angry when later on manipulated into what she describes as a slowly escalating series of assaults on the part of Weinstein. She’s angry that she did not take action sooner that might have helped expose the lurking monster and thus helped other, vulnerable women to avoid the depredations of the man who has come to epitomize the men who develop ways to manipulate women and prey upon them with impunity, historically resulting in shame, fear, and trauma.

Thurman’s desire to wait until she controlled the circumstances and timing of her revelations are representative of what women will be from now and into the future. Her strength, determination, and intentionality in how she made her disclosures reveal someone who is highly-evolved and who has taken the reins of her life after traumatizing events, acknowledging victimization without allowing her status as a victim to overwhelm her, or to be the only character that she will be known for.

Thurman’s disclosures went on to reveal that she had told Quentin Tarantino about Weinstein’s inappropriate behavior, his harassment and assault of her, and of Weistein’s threatening her career. She said that Tarantino eventually realized the seriousness of her accusations, and confronted Weinstein about it.

But, later on in filming a scene for Tarantino, Thurman states that he pressured her into driving an unsafe car for a scene in which she’s driving a Carmen Ghia past palm trees. She states that she had been warned by an employee that the car was not safe, and she resisted driving it, but that Tarantino insisted it was fine and that the road would be straight and easy. Unfortunately, the car had been modified, and the driver’s seat was not properly anchored to the floor.

As Thurman drove the car in the scene, the road turned out to not be straight — she had to swerve to miss palm trees, and the road was sand with insufficient traction. Tarantino had insisted she drive up to 40mph so that her hair would be blown by the wind in the shot, and Thurman lost control of the car and slammed into a palm tree, injuring herself.

Thurman complained that Tarantino and the studio long resisted releasing the car’s cam film footage of the incident to her, despite repeated requests for it. He ultimately relented, and Thurman states that she gave him some degree of forgiveness for that.

In the interview, Thurman doesn’t outright state the connection between Weinstein and the car crash, but one can connect the dots to a degree. The rape when Thurman was young, the harassment by Weinstein, and the car crash were all negative experiences that Thurman had when she was persuaded, cajoled and pressured into doing things that she knew she did not want to do. In her mature wisdom, she has realized that she should trust her instincts more and she urges other women to do so as well, rather than to allow society and one’s own insecurities to incorrectly convince one that being assaulted was somehow one’s own fault. Having given in to coercion early in her life, Thurman learned that she needed to insistently resist such moments. Her later negative experiences further influenced her to take a stance against Weinstein and to speak out now to support the others that came forward.

“Personally, it has taken me 47 years to stop calling people who are mean to you ‘in love’ with you. It took a long time because I think that as little girls we are conditioned to believe that cruelty and love somehow have a connection and that is like the sort of era that we need to evolve out of.”