Uma Thurman houdt Quentin Tarantino verantwoordelijk voor ongeluk in Kill Bill

Na een lange periode van stilte rondom Harvey Weinstein en de vele beschuldigingen, heeft nu actrice Uma Thurman een boekje opengedaan. In een artikel van de New York Times onthult ze te zijn lastiggevallen door de producent. Het interview heeft echter ook stof doen opwaaien over regisseur Quentin Tarantino, die Thurman zou hebben gedwongen een stunt uit te voeren voor Kill Bill, wat resulteerde in een pijnlijk ongeluk.

Ze vertelde ten eerste over Weinstein:

“I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did. 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.”

Volgens Thurman verslechterde de band met Tarantino enorm nadat hij de actrice dwong om in een stuntauto te rijden voor Kill Bill terwijl het niet veilig aanvoelde. Zo werd de auto op het laatste moment vervangen door een automaat i.p.v. een schakel en kreeg ze te horen dat de nieuwe auto het niet erg goed deed. Als gevolg hiervan liet ze Tarantino weten dat ze het niet aandurfde, maar dat wilde hij niet horen:

“Quentin came in my trailer and didn’t like to hear no, like any director. 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.’” He persuaded her to do it, and instructed: “ ‘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. The seat wasn’t screwed down properly. It was a sand road and it was not a straight road.” 

Het ongeluk had nare gevolgen en Uma Thurman had flinke wonden opgelopen aan haar knieën en haar nek, waar ze tot de dag van vandaag nog steeds last van heeft. Ze vertelde:

“The steering wheel was at my belly and my legs were jammed under me. I felt this searing pain and thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m never going to walk again. When I came back from the hospital in a neck brace with my knees damaged and a large massive egg on my head and a concussion, I wanted to see the car and I was very upset. Quentin and I had an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me. And he was very angry at that, I guess understandably, because he didn’t feel he had tried to kill me.”

Twee weken na de crash probeerde de beelden te bemachtigen en had haar advocaat Miramax, het productiebedrijf van de broers Weinstein, erover gecontacteerd. Miramax zou haar alleen de beelden geven als ze een document zou ondertekenen dat Thurman hun niet de fout zou geven. Dit weigerde ze te doen. De #MeToo beweging zorgde ervoor dat Thurman er weer opnieuw achteraan ging en met succes! Ze zei:

“Quentin finally atoned by giving it to me after 15 years, right? Not that it matters now, with my permanently damaged neck and my screwed-up knees.”

Snel na het uitkomen van het nieuws schoten enkele bekendheden Thurman online te hulp. Zo schreef Jessica Chastain:

“I keep imagining Tarantino spitting in Uma’s face and strangling her with a chain for Kill Bill. How many images of women in media do we celebrate that showcase abuse? When did this become normalized ‘entertainment’? When violence against women is used as a plot device to make the characters stronger then we have a problem. It is not empowering to be beaten and raped, yet so many films make it their ‘pheonix’ moment for women. We don’t need abuse in order to be powerful. We already are.”

Regisseur Judd Apatow viel Tarantino aan:

“Tarantino also ignored Daryl Hannah’s complaints when she was harassed by Harvey Weinstein. They kicked her off the press tour. Nobody helped her… This is why Weinstein wasn’t stopped. $$$$”

Evan Rachel Wood schreef:

“Love you Uma. You have always been an inspiration to me. Thank you for your brutal honesty. Not just about Harvey but about the risks we sometimes take with our lives.“

Inmiddels heeft Tarantino ook van zich laten horen en laat zich opnieuw uit over Harvey Weinstein. Zo zei Tarantino dat hij er nog steeds spijt van heeft dat hij Thurman toentertijd achter het stuur heeft laten plaatsnemen:

“I am guilty, for putting her in that car, but not the way that people are saying I am guilty of it. It’s the biggest regret of my life, getting her to do that stunt. There are certain things I can’t get too far into the weeds on, but I will answer any questions you have about it.”

Ook bevestigde Tarantino dat hij de beelden had vrijgegeven:

 “I figured that eventually it would be used whenever she had her big piece. Also, there was an element of closure. She had been denied it, from Harvey Weinstein, being able to even see the footage. I wanted to deliver it to her, so she could look at it. So she could see it and help her with her memory of the incident. I never talked to Uma about this, but I don’t exactly know exactly what caused the crash, and Uma doesn’t know exactly what caused the crash. She has her suspicions and I have mine. I thought, if I get this footage to her and she puts it out there in the world, that a crash expert can look at it and determine exactly what happened on that road.”

Volgens Tarantino was dit ook de reden waarom hun band verslechterde: ‘

“It affected me and Uma for the next two to three years. It wasn’t like we didn’t talk. But a trust was broken. A trust broken over a year of shooting, of us doing really gnarly stuff. Doing really big stunt stuff. I wanted her to do as much as possible and we were trying to take care of her and we pulled it off. She didn’t get hurt. And then the last four days, in what we thought would be a simple driving shot, almost kills her.”

Tot slot vertelde Tarantino dat hij ook afwist van Weinstein’s seksuele intimidaties:

“While we were getting ready to do ‘Kill Bill’, Uma tells me that he had done the same thing to her. That was when I realized there was a pattern, in Harvey’s luring and pushing attacks. So I made Harvey apologize to Uma. In the Maureen Dowd article it says, that is when Quentin confronted Harvey? Well, my confrontation was saying, you have to go to Uma. This happened. You have to apologize to her and she has to accept your apology, if we’re going to do ‘Kill Bill’ together.”