The well-known actress from Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill I and II spoke for the first time about her bad moments as a woman in Hollywood.
Uma Thurman's revealed that she was R- at the age of 16 by another actor and that throughout her career she was a victim of machismo, abuse of power, and male intolerance.
But her complaints did not stop there.
Thurman, 47, also spoke about his experience with the ousted all-powerful producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been denounced by dozens of women in recent times, and whose case has given rise to one of the biggest revelations about the ins and outs of S- and power in show business.
And she also launched a fierce question against Quentin Tarantino, the director of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill I and II, whom she accused of putting his life at risk during one of the filmings.
But what are Thurman's allegations and why are they relevant?
It is not the first time that the actress has gone against the producer of some of the most important films in which she participated.
Last November, in a Thanksgiving message on her Instagram account, the actress said she was happy about how Weinstein's world had come crashing down after successive allegations of S- harassment.
"I'm glad it's slow, you don't deserve a bullet," she wrote.
She concluded her message with a cryptic announcement that promised a further reveal: "When I'm ready, I'll say what I have to say...stay tuned."
More than two months later, Thurman took the plunge.
But not only to talk about Weinstein, but she opened the range from S- abuse to power and influence by several well-known men in Hollywood.
Thurman revealed that she was S- assaulted when she was a minor, early in her career, by another actor (not named here) who "coerced" her into bed.
"I tried to say no, I cried, I did everything I could do. He told me the door was locked, but I never ran and tried the knob. I was finally obedient," she recounted.
"When I got home, I remember standing in front of the mirror and looking at my hands and being mad at them for not being bloody or bruised."
The Weinstein case
The incident with Weinstein, according to her, took place in a suite at the Savoy Hotel in London, after the success of Pulp Fiction in 1994, produced by him.
"He pushed me. He tried to get on top of me…he did all sorts of nasty things. But really, he failed to get on top of me and force me. You become like a scurrying animal, like a lizard," she recalled.
According to her version, a day later she received a bouquet of flowers from the producer with a note that said "You have great instincts."
Thurman acknowledged that her career was not affected by the incident: Weinstein's aides kept calling her for new film projects.
A spokeswoman for the producer, who is undergoing rehabilitation to cure himself of an alleged S- addiction, issued a statement to deny the story.
"Mr. Weinstein acknowledges having an awkward situation 25 years ago with Thurman in England for misreading his signals after a flirtatious exchange in Paris, for which he immediately apologized and was deeply sorry," the message reads.
"However, the claims about being physically assaulted are false. There was no physical contact during the awkward situation and Weinstein is saddened and baffled as to why Thurman ... waited 25 years to go public with these allegations," he adds.
What about Quentin Tarantino?
Thurman also detailed the reasons for her breakup with Tarantino, who, along with Weinstein, filmed Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, two of the actress's most successful films.
She accused him of "attempted murder" for forcing her to drive a broken-down car for the famous car crash scene in Kill Bill 1.
The actress alleged that there were known problems with her vehicle and that Tarantino became "furious" at her insistence that they use a double of her during filming, and forced her to drive it.
"Quentin came to my trailer and he didn't want to listen. He was mad because it was costing him so much time, but I was scared. He said, 'I promise you the car is fine. It's a straight road. You have to hit 40 miles an hour or else your hair will not wave as it should and I will make you do it again'... It was a death trap. The seat was not attached as it should, it was not a straight road and it was full of sand," he said.
"The steering wheel was pressing on my stomach and my legs were stuck under me. I felt searing pain and thought 'I'm not going to walk again'. When I left the hospital with a neck brace, damaged knees, and a concussion I wanted to see the car, I was very angry. I had a huge fight with Quentin and accused him of trying to kill me. He got really upset because, I guess understandably, he didn't feel like he had tried something like that," he recounted.
She also denounced that later the study prevented her from seeing the car and did everything possible to prevent her from suing them.
"Harvey S- assaulted me, but that didn't kill me," she alleged, near the end of the interview, alluding to the accident for which she blamed the director.
"Personally, it's taken me 47 years to understand that people who are mean to me aren't in love with me. It took a long time because I think, from childhood, we're conditioned to believe that cruelty and love somehow have a connection, but That's the kind of time we need to evolve from," he concluded.
On Tuesday, Tarantino issued a public statement following Thurman's allegations.
"I'm guilty, for putting her in that car, but not for what people are saying I'm guilty of," Quentin Tarantino said.
"Uma was uneasy about the driving scene," he stated. "It was just about driving. No one looked at it as a stunt scene. Maybe we should have seen it like that, but we didn't. I'm sure when it was brought up to me, I made a disapproving face and got irritated. But I'm sure that I didn't get enraged or angry," he said.
