Weinstein tried to rape me, says Uma
Uma Thurman’s shattering Weinstein claims
HOLLYWOOD star Uma Thurman has revealed that disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein tried to rape her.
The 47-year-old actress said that Weinstein – who produced her hit movies Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill – sexually assaulted her at London’s Savoy Hotel 25 years ago.
In a devastating interview, she also accused director Quentin Tarantino of trying to kill her on the set of Kill Bill, by forcing her to perform a dangerous stunt in an unsafe car which she ended up crashing, inflicting permanent injuries.
The incidents destroyed the close working relationship she had with both men.
Describing Weinstein’s attack as ‘a bat to the head’, Thurman explained: ‘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. You’re like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard. I was doing anything I could to get the train on the track. My track. Not his track.’
Speaking to the New York Times, Thurman said the assault followed a similar incident in his Paris hotel suite a few days earlier, when he got her to follow him into a sauna.
‘I was standing there in my full black leather outfit. And it was so hot and I said, “This is ridiculous, what are you doing?” And he was getting very flustered and mad and he jumped up and ran out.’
The actress claimed she felt intimidated by Weinstein as he controlled her career. ‘I was never any kind of studio darling,’ she added. ‘He had a chokehold on the type of films that were right for me.’
She returned to see him after the London assault with a friend and warned him: ‘If you do what you did to me to other people you will lose your career, your reputation and your family. I promise you.’
Thurman, who did not disclose exactly when the alleged assaults took place, alleges Weinstein threatened to derail her career if she ever talked about the incidents.
The actress had hinted at Weinstein’s behaviour in an astonishing post on Instagram in November, when she backed the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment.
She wrote: ‘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.’
Thurman said she regretted not speaking up earlier because of ‘all the women who were attacked after I was. I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did.
‘All these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do.’
Thurman further claimed she was raped by an older, unnamed actor when she was 16 in New York after meeting him in a nightclub.
Weinstein last night denied attacking Thurman, saying they had ‘a flirtatious and fun working relationship’. His spokesman said: ‘Mr Weinstein acknowledges making an awkward pass 25 years ago at Ms Thurman in England after misreading her signals after a flirtatious exchange in Paris, for which he immediately apologised and deeply regrets.
‘However, her claims about being physically assaulted are untrue. And this is the first time we have heard those details. There was no physical contact and Mr Weinstein is saddened and puzzled as to why Ms Thurman, someone he considers a colleague and a friend, waited 25 years to make these allegations public.
‘This is the first time we are hearing that she considered Mr Weinstein an enemy and the pictures of their history tell a different story.’ Last night it emerged that British police are investigating Weinstein over two further alleged assaults, including one in London in 2011. They bring the total number of women who have reported Weinstein to UK police to nine.
More than 50 further complaints have been made in the US. Weinstein has denied all accusations.
‘He did all kinds of unpleasant things’