Film

Stars Are Speaking Out Against Quentin Tarantino After Uma Thurman’s Accusations

Thurman says Tarantino choked and spat on her during the filming of Kill Bill.

by Max Koslowski  5 February 2018
Kill Bill

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A lot of attention has been given to the recent, sickening allegations that disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted Uma Thurman in the 1990s, but now people are turning their attention to the other allegations in Thurman’s interview — this time involving director Quentin Tarantino.

The Incident

According to Thurman, this is what happened:

Tarantino had almost finished shooting Kill Bill — one of the last moments left to film was that famous scene in which Thurman’s character, The Bride, drives a convertible on her way to get Bill.

According to Thurman, the car used in the shoot was unsafe. It had a dodgy gearbox, and the actress was supposed to drive it quickly down a dirt road. But when Thurman asked for a stunt person to replace her in the scene, her request was denied.

“Quentin came in my trailer and didn’t like to hear no, like any director,” the actress recounted in a New York Times article over the weekend, “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.'”

According to Thurman, Tarantino then told her to “‘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,” Thurman told the Times. “The seat wasn’t screwed down properly. It was a sand road and it was not a straight road.”

In the end, Thurman crashed and ended up in hospital with damaged knees and a concussion. When she asked production company, Miramax (yep, Harvey Weinstein’s company) for footage of the crash, they said that they would only give it to her if she signed a release saying they weren’t legally responsible.

Thurman eventually got her hands on the footage 15 years later — you can see it here. But she describes the experience has “dehumanisation to the point of death”, and says that because of the accident she’s got a “permanently damaged neck” and “screwed-up knees”.

Thurman also said that Tarantino had personally choked her and spat in her face during the filming of key Kill Bill scenes.

The Reaction

Thurman’s story has struck a chord with figures in Hollywood — big names likes Jessica Chastain, Judd Apatow and Asia Argento have publicly supported Thurman in the wake of the allegations.

Argento, who was one of the first women to speak out against Weinstein, called Tarantino a “near murderer”:

Apatow questioned why Tarantino was getting funding to create a film which features criminal fugitive Roman Polanski as a key character.

Tarantino is in the middle of creating a film about cult leader Charles Manson, and the murders that he committed with the Manson Family. Polanksi’s wife, actress Sharon Tate, was murdered alongside others by the cult.

But some are taking issue with a film that gives Polanski a spotlight, given that he was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 1978 — before he fled the country to avoid imprisonment. He has worked from Europe ever since.

Jessica Chastain also called out Tarantino, focussing on the allegations that the director had spat on Thurman’s face, and strangled her with a chain for yet another.

Tarantino hasn’t commented on the allegations so far.