Tarantino expresses regret over Thurman crash
Director Quentin Tarantino has responded to Uma Thurman’s allegation that he put her life in danger with a dangerous car stunt on “Kill Bill,’’ calling the incident “the biggest regret of my life.’’
But just as he was making amends for that incident — and trying to explain it — the director was being excoriated on social media Tuesday for remarks he made in a 2003 interview with Howard Stern that resurfaced online, seemingly defending Roman Polanski for having sex with a 13-year-old girl, saying the victim “wanted to have it’’ and was “down to party’’ with Polanski.
The incident involving Thurman became public on Saturday, in a New York Times column in which the actress, while also making sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein, recounted Tarantino’s persuading her
“I didn’t force her into the car. She got into it because she trusted me. And she believed me.’’
Quentin Tarantino
to drive a car on the Mexico set that she had been warned might be faulty.
Thurman told columnist Maureen Dowd that she’d expressed fear beforehand, and asked that a stunt driver do it instead. An irritated Tarantino convinced her to do it, she said, and she crashed into a tree, suffering what she said was permanent neck damage, a concussion and damage to her knees.
Video that Thurman provided the Times — provided to her by Tarantino himself — shows her struggling to control the car before crashing, and then being lifted out of the vehicle.
In an interview with Deadline published Monday, Tarantino disputed some of the details in the Times account but said he had indeed persuaded Thurman to drive the car, although not as angrily as described. He said he had driven the road himself and it had seemed totally straight, but that a decision was made for Thurman to drive it in the other direction, and somehow there was a turn that he didn’t expect.
“I didn’t force her into the car,’’ he told Deadline. “She got into it because she trusted me. And she believed me.’’ He said seeing the crash was “just horrible ... It was heartbreaking.’’ He called it “the biggest regret of my life.’’