Last year, in the middle of Sex Predatorgate 2017, Uma Thurman was asked about Harvey Weinstein on a red carpet. The video went viral, because Uma seemed like she was seething with rage as she chose her words very carefully about what she would not discuss at that moment. Weeks later, Uma posted a Thanksgiving message which went viral again, because she wrote in part: “Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators – I’m glad it’s going slowly – you don’t deserve a bullet).” People were ready for her to tell her story whenever she was ready. Uma Thurman is ready. Uma sat down with Maureen Dowd at the New York Times. You can and should read the entire piece here:
Opinion: Uma Thurman is ready to talk about why she's angry. She tells Maureen Dowd about her experiences with Harvey Weinstein.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 3, 2018
In the piece, Uma speaks at length to Dowd about how both Harvey Weinstein and Quentin Tarantino abused her… in different yet strikingly similar ways. Weinstein’s abuse is by now sadly familiar – he trapped her, literally and figuratively, he threatened her, he assaulted her, he got off on her terror, her vulnerability, her fear. He put his hands on her body without her consent, he exposed himself to her, he pinned her down in a locked hotel room and attempted to rape her. And afterwards, he told her that if she told a soul, she would no longer have a career.
With Quentin Tarantino, the abuse was different – the abuse came wrapped up in the “brilliant auteur” label. The abuse came in the form of torturing her for the sake of “art.” He spat on her, he put a chain around her neck and pulled. He forced her to do dangerous stunt work which made her uncomfortable, and left her injured on the set of Kill Bill. Tarantino insisted that she do some dangerous stunt driving, and then when she crashed the “death box” car, the studio (Weinstein) threatened her repeatedly and refused to let her see the footage from the accident. She finally got her hands on it:
After being cajoled into driving an unsafe car at dangerous speeds, Uma Thurman slams into palm tree on set of Kill Bill.
— Guy Krenn (@SayGuyNotGee) February 3, 2018
She f–ked up her neck and her knees because the dashboard basically buckled and halfway pinned her to the seat. She tells the NYT that she still feels pain from the accident too, someodd 15 years later. Uma talks about how the accident soured her relationship with Tarantino, and it took years and years for them to even associate with each other without arguing.
Oh, and she also says that CAA was always in cohoots with Harvey Weinstein, that CAA agents and managers knew they were sending actresses to Weinstein like lambs to the slaughter, like CAA managers were Harvey’s g–damn pimps. Obviously, Weinstein had a lot of dumb sh-t to say in reaction to Uma’s story – he denies every assaulting her or trying to rape her, and he apologized publicly for whatever. He’s a pig.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
