Quentin Tarantino has responded to the shocking New York Times piece that detailed Uma Thurman’s car crash during the filming of the Kill Bill movies. According to Thurman, she was forced to do a dangerous driving stunt that permanently injured her knees and neck. Tarantino, the director, was the one who convinced her to do the stunt. Thurman has put the blame on the producers and Harvey Weinstein, who she says covered up the accident.
On Saturday, the New York Times published an article on the Kill Bill star’s accusations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein. In the story, Thurman talks about filming the iconic scene where she had to drive a blue convertible on the road to kill Bill. Thurman had safety concerns about driving the car, but she was assured by Tarantino that there were no problems. Unfortunately, the car crashed and Thurman was badly injured. Footage of the accident has also been released.
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Thurman credits Tarantino with providing her with the footage. Thurman says Tarantino is “remorseful” for what happened and gave her the footage so she could expose it, despite the fact that it could cause him personal harm. In an interview with Deadline, Tarantino broke his silence on the issue and gave his account of the car crash. Tarantino clarified that he never stormed into Thurman’s trailer and yelled at her to do the scene, as some have inferred from the article. Tarantino says he was able to convince her to get behind the wheel based on the trust they had developed while filming the movie.
Tarantino talks about driving down the road himself prior to the accident, just to make sure the road was safe. Apparently, there was a little S-curve in the road that Tarantino had failed to notice, making the director believe that the road was completely straight:
I thought, a straight road is a straight road and I didn’t think I needed to run the road again to make sure there wasn’t any difference, going in the opposite direction. Again, that is one of the biggest regrets of my life. As a director, you learn things and sometimes you learn them through horrendous mistakes. That was one of my most horrendous mistakes, that I didn’t take the time to run the road, one more time, just to see what I would see.
Tarantino says he was greatly affected by the accident, as he knew that “a trust was broken.” It damaged his relationship with Thurman. The filmmaker says he was eager to help Thurman find the footage when she requested it, adding that finding the footage was his “happiest day this year“.
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