Uma Thurman Accuses Harvey Weinstein of Sexual Attacks

Actress Uma Thurman detailed a series of sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein in an interview published Saturday with the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd.

Thurman, who worked with the disgraced independent movie mogul on seven films, said their relationship quickly went from professional to toxic one day during the filming of the Quentin Tarantino-directed drama Pulp Fiction. 

Weinstein had invited Thurman to his room for a meeting about a script in a Paris hotel, where he was dressed in a bathrobe. Thurman recalled her reaction to him attempting to lead her into a steam room.

“I was standing there in my full black leather outfit — boots, pants, jacket. 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,” Thurman said.

Thurman described what she called the first “attack” at London’s Savoy hotel.

“It was such a bat to the head. 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,” she said of the incident, for which she didn’t specify a date. “You’re like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard. I was doing anything I could to get the train back on the track. My track. Not his track.”

Weinstein’s assistants arranged a meeting the next day, at which point Thurman claims the producer threatened her, saying ” if you do what you did to me to other people, you will lose your career, your reputation and your family, I promise you.”

A representative for Weinstein denied physically assaulting Thurman and said the producer never threatened Thurman’s career. “Mr. Weinstein acknowledges making a pass at Ms. Thurman in England after misreading her signals in Paris,” the rep told the Times, adding that Weinstein “immediately apologized” to Thurman after the encounter.

Thurman expressed guilt for all the women who accused Weinstein of sexual abuse after, often, being led to his hotel room under the presumption that their meeting with him was about business.

“I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone,” she said. “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. … I stand as both a person who was subjected to it and a person who was then also part of the cloud cover.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Thurman described a stunt she says Tarantino forced her to do some time after she told him about her Weinstein encounter.

“Quentin and I had an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me,” Thurman said of a Pulp Fiction stunt that saw her slam a car into a tree, landing her in the hospital.

The Oscar-nominated actress posted an Instagram message last November that said Weinstein doesn’t “deserve a bullet.”

“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,” Thurman wrote on Instagram. “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.”

Read Thurman’s interview in full here.

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson