Uma Thurman accuses Weinstein of sex assault

Actress also says Tarantino forced her into unsafe car

NEW YORK — Actress Uma Thurman, in longawaited remarks, has accused embattled Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of forcing himself upon her sexually and accused “Kill Bill” director Quentin Tarantino of making her perform a dangerous car stunt that injured her.

Thurman’s allegations against Weinstein had been anticipated since she hinted late last year that she had a story to tell about the movie mogul, who is accused of sexual misconduct against many women, but wanted to wait until she was less angry. Her story came in an interview with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

Thurman told Dowd that an early encounter with Weinstein in a Paris hotel room in the 1990s ended with him appearing in a bathrobe and leading her to a steam room but that the first “attack” — the word appears in quotes — happened later in London.

“He pushed me down,” she said. “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.”

The Times article says Thurman’s memory of the encounter stops there, but it quotes a friend who was waiting downstairs as saying Thurman emerged from an elevator disheveled and shaking. “Her eyes were crazy, and she was totally out of control,” said the friend, Ilona Herman.

When Thurman was able to talk again, Herman said, she revealed that Weinstein, who was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, had threatened to derail her career.

Weinstein, the executive producer of award-winning movies including “Pulp Fiction,” acknowledged making an “awkward pass” at Thurman but denied physical assault.

“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 apologized and deeply regrets,” his representative Holly Baird said in an emailed statement.

“However, her claims about being physically assaulted are untrue.”

Thurman, one of the stars of “Pulp Fiction,” also was quoted as saying that just before shooting began on Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” which came out in 2003, she told Tarantino about Weinstein and he confronted the mogul, leading him to apologize.

But Thurman also described a harrowing onset episode on location in Mexico in which Tarantino ignored her expressed fears of driving a car that she had been warned might be faulty.

Tarantino persuaded her to do it, the article said, quoting him as saying, “Hit 40 miles per hour or your hair won’t blow the right way and I’ll make you do it again.”

Video accompanying the article online shows Thurman struggling to control the car and crashing into a tree.

Thurman said that after the crash of the car, which she described as a “deathbox,” she left a hospital in a neck brace with damaged knees and a concussion.

Tarantino’s representatives did not respond for comment. The Times also did not get a response, according to the article.