Uma Thurman – star of Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction – has spoken out about her experience with film producer Harvey Weinstein.
In an interview with the New York Times, the actor gave an account of an assault at Weinstein's suite at the Savoy hotel in London in the mid-1990s.
She said: “It was such a bat to the head. [Weinstein] 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.
“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.”
Thurman said the day after the alleged assault, she received a large bunch of flowers from Weinstein. “They were yellow,” she recalled. “And I opened the note like it was a soiled diaper and it just said, ‘You have great instincts.’”
In a statement to Deadline, Weinstein's spokesperson denies Thurman’s claims, but acknowledges the producer made an “an awkward pass 25 years ago” after “misreading her signals”.
The statement said: “There was no physical contact during Mr. Weinstein’s awkward pass and Mr. Weinstein is saddened and puzzled as to why Ms. Thurman, someone he considers a colleague and a friend, waited 25 years to make these allegations public, noting that he and Ms. Thurman have shared a very close and mutually beneficial working relationship where they have made several very successful film projects together.”
In November last year, Thurman said she would talk about her time with Weinstein when she was “less angry”, saying on Instagram that she was pleased the allegations against the producer were emerging slowly as he didn’t "deserve a bullet".
Thurman’s claims come after multiple allegations of sexual harassment were made against the former head of The Weinstein Company last year. A 10-month investigation by The New Yorker reported that 13 women had accused Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault. Three of the women alleged that the producer had raped them.
Weinstein categorically denies any allegations of non-consensual sex.
