After several months of saying she would reveal her sexual harasser, Kill Bill star Uma Thurman has detailed how Harvey Weinstein forced himself on her in a London hotel.
She also describes how working with Quentin Tarantino on Kill Bill extracted its own form of non-sexual abuse that left her injured and irate.
File image from 2015 of US producer Harvey Weinstein Source: AAP
In a New York Times article by Maureen Dowd, Thurman also says she holds her agents at the firm CAA responsible.
Thurman tells how, after the success of Pulp Fiction, "the bathrobe came out" when Weinstein asked her to meet him at his Paris hotel and then led her to the steam room, which she quickly exited.
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Not long after, she met him at the Savoy Hotel in London, where she alleges, "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."
Thurman returned to the hotel soon after and threatened to expose what he had done but instead Weinstein said he would ruin her career, she recounted.
Thurman also said that she feels bad that so many women were later abused by Weinstein and that in some way, they may have trusted him because actresses like herself were willing to work with him.
Weinstein confirmed to the New York Times that he had apologised to Thurman at the time for what he called "misreading her signals". CAA apologised recently to clients who were "let down".
Thurman also described how working with Tarantino on Kill Bill left her feeling devastated after a dangerous stunt driving scene.
Though Tarantino had confronted Weinstein on her behalf, Thurman was shaken by his demands on her during the shoot and felt she was in danger driving the modified Karmann Ghia. Thurman says the seat wasn't screwed down properly when the car drifted off the road and smashed into a palm tree.
Miramax would only show her the footage of the accident if she signed a release from liability, which she refused.
"When they turned on me after the accident," she told Dowd, "I went from being a creative contributor and performer to being like a broken tool."
After 15 years, she finally succeeded in getting the footage back from Tarantino that could help her prove what happened on the set. But she said that offered little comfort as she still suffers from neck and knee damage.
Weinstein's rep did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
