Uma Thurman breaks silence, says Weinstein assaulted her

Actor Uma Thurman has opened up about her experience of working for disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and alleged that he assaulted her in a London hotel suite in the mid-1990s.
The "Kill Bill" star had earlier said that she is "waiting to feel less angry" before she addresses the scandal surrounding Weinstein and the ongoing problem of sexual harassment in Hollywood.
Now, in an interview with the New York Times, Thurman detailed an alleged attack by Weinstein and also discussed her distressed relationship with frequent collaborator Quentin Tarantino.
"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 said about the incident in London's Savoy hotel.
The London incident was preceded by a strange meeting in Weinstein's Paris hotel room, where he stripped down to just a bathrobe during a discussion about a script.

Thurman said that as they were talking he led her to a steam room, and when she asked him why, he got "flustered" and ran out of the room.
Thurman said she was staying with a friend in Fulham when alleged London incident happened, and the next day she received a large bunch of roses from Weinstein.

She said she, along with her friend, returned to the hotel to confront Weinstein and asked him to meet her in the bar. However, his assistants convinced her to return upstairs alone.
Her friend was told to wait outside the room on a couch and Thurman recalled telling Weinstein, "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 spokesman for Weinstein told the Times that Thurman "very well could have said this".
Thurman's friend, Herman, said when Thurman emerged from his hotel room "she was very dishevelled and so upset and had this blank look".

"Her eyes were crazy and she was totally out of control. I shovelled her into the taxi and we went home to my house. She was really shaking," she said.
Herman said that when Thurman was able to talk again, she revealed that Weinstein had threatened to ruin her career.
Weinstein's spokesperson denied any threat to Thurman's career and said the producer found her to be "a brilliant actress" and he had "a flirtatious and fun working relationship" with her.
"Mr Weinstein acknowledges making a pass at Ms Thurman in England after misreading her signals in Paris. He immediately apologised," the spokesperson said.

Thurman claimed that her fragile equation with Weinstein changed her relationship with "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill" director Quentin Tarantino.
Thurman said she confided in Tarantino about the alleged London attack after which he confronted Weinstein with her accusations. It eventually led to an apology from Weinstein in 2001 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Thurman's working relationship with Tarantino soured after an accident on the set of "Kill Bill" during which the director pushed her to drive a car that a teamster had told her was not fully safe. Thurman crashed the car and was hospitalised.
"When I came back from the hospital in a neck brace with my knees damaged and a large massive egg on my head and a concussion, I wanted to see the car and I was very upset," she said.

"Quentin and I had an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me. And he was very angry at that, I guess understandably, because he didn't feel he had tried to kill me," she added.
Tarantino did not comment to the Times, which said producers on the film did not recall Thurman objecting to driving the car she crashed.