On Hollywood Changing in the Post-Weinstein Era ‘I’m Hopeful
The Oscar nominee doesn’t want other women — including her own daughters — to suffer the way she did
Hers was one of the most anticipated stories to come out of the #metoo movement. As director Quentin Tarantino’s muse, Uma Thurman had a long working relationship with notorious Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of serial sexual misconduct by more than 60 women. In February, Uma, 47, finally broke her silence: Not long after she rejected an awkward pass he made at her in a Parisian hotel room in the ’90s, she alleges, Weinstein attacked her in a hotel room in London. “He pushed me down. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things,” she told The New York Times.
She managed to escape but afterward, she says, he threatened to ruin her career if she said anything. (His rep acknowledges he made a pass at her but denies he made threats.) “The complicated feeling I have about Harvey is how bad I feel about all the women that were attacked after I was,” she said in the interview, in which she also detailed a fight with Quentin after she felt bullied into driving an unsafe car while filming Kill Bill, resulting in a terrifying crash. “Quentin used Harvey as the executive producer of Kill Bill, a movie that symbolizes female empowerment. And 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.” In Touch’s Jaclyn Roth caught up with the mom of three at the spring benefit for Room to Grow, a nonprofit that provides food, support and essential goods for babies born into poverty. She opened up about motherhood, the #metoo movement and how she feels about her daughter becoming an actress.
How do you think speaking out about Harvey has changed things? UT: I don’t know, it’s really too soon to say. I am very hopeful that there has been awakening of respect and of awareness and that that will make a better world and workplace for my girls and also my son.
Your daughter Maya is going to be on Stranger Things! Are you super proud of her? UT: Of course! I am of all of my children, but her step into the world is awesome.
Do you give her advice? UT: Any question she has, I will speak to her about it for hours. But she is very smart, very capable, has a great head on her shoulders and is enormously talented.
What’s the best lesson you’ve learned, being in the business? UT: Humility! [ Laughs]
It sounds like you’re a great role model for your kids. UT: Well, I am flawed but I do love them. [ Laughs] Being a mother is probably one of the great blessings that has ever been bestowed on me, and that kind of love is something you can’t imagine your life without, once you have experienced it.
Do you think you’ll have more kids? UT: No, no! [ Laughs] Of course not. ◼