Uma Thurman Speaks Out About Harvey Weinstein: ‘He Pushed Me Down…He Tried To Expose Himself’

Uma Thurman finally revealed her alleged experience with disgraced movie head, Harvey Weinstein, in an interview with the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd published on Saturday, titled, “This Is Why Uma Thurman Is Angry.” 

Thurman first hinted to Access in October that she had a story to tell about sexual misconduct in the workplace, following the initial news that Harvey Weinstein had allegedly sexually harassed female actresses throughout their careers.

“I don’t have a tidy soundbite for you, because I’ve learned — I’m not a child, and I’ve learned that when I’ve spoken in anger I usually regret the way I express myself. So I’ve been waiting to feel less angry. And when I’m ready, I’ll say what I have to say,” Thurman told Access in a tense moment, clearly holding back her words. 

In the New York Times interview, Thurman details what she claims happened between her and Weinstein, accusing him of forcing himself on her and exposing himself in hotel rooms. She alleged that Weinstein first tried to approach her wearing a bathrobe during a meeting in his Paris hotel room following 1994’s “Pulp Fiction,” in which she starred. She claimed that he led her down a hallway to a steam room and she asked him, “This is ridiculous, what are you doing?” before he ran out. 

Thurman said she “didn’t feel threatened” and “thought he was being super idiosyncratic” as if he were a “kooky, eccentric uncle.”

She claims the first “attack” happened at the Savoy Hotel in London in Weinstein’s suite. “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. 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 explained. 

She reportedly confronted Weinstein the next day about the incident, and told him that if he ever tried that again with her or any other actress that he would lose his career. According to Thurman, the incident continued to cause strife in her relationship with “Kill Bill” director Quentin Tarantino, because she told him about the incident, but said he seemed to dismiss the claims until 2001 at the Cannes Film Festival. 

Weinstein was apparently “hurt” by Thurman’s claims, but later gave her a half-baked apology by the poolside of the Hotel du Cap. Thurman recalled that he went from “aggressive to ashamed.”

In the New York Times piece, a rep for Weinstein, said he acknowledged the encounters, but up until the Paris steam room exchange, they had had “a flirtatious and fun working relationship.” The rep continued, “Mr. Weinstein acknowledges making a pass at Ms. Thurman in England after misreading her signals in Paris. He immediately apologized.”

Thurman explained to Dowd that her feeling toward the Miramax head were complicated, and may have caused her to miss warning signs. 

“The complicated feeling I have about Harvey is how bad I feel about all the women that were attacked after I was,” she told the New York Times. “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.” 

Weinstein has previously denied all claims of non-consensual sex. 

Read the full New York Times interview here. 

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