Uma Thurman details Weinstein 'attack'
LOS ANGELES - AFP
Actress Uma Thurman, who is indelibly linked to Harvey Weinstein's Miramax studio thanks to her iconic roles in "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill," has broken her silence about the disgraced Hollywood mogul, accusing him of attacking her and threatening her career.
Thurman, 47, told The New York Times in an interview published on Feb. 3 of two incidents in London that took place after the release of 1994's Oscar-winning "Pulp Fiction." They followed an uncomfortable episode at a Paris hotel in which Thurman said Weinstein was dressed in a bathrobe and led her into a steam room during a meeting about a script.
In the first "attack," which took place in Weinstein's suite at London's Savoy Hotel, "he pushed me down. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things," she said. "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 she took a friend with her to confront Weinstein not long after that first incident. But his assistants pressured her to meet him alone in his room.
Thurman said she told 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."
Weinstein told the paper "she very well could have said this." Thurman's friend Ilona Herman, who is Robert De Niro's longtime makeup artist, recalled in the Times that the actress came out of that one-on-one meeting "very disheveled and so upset and had this blank look."
Herman said Thurman told her that Weinstein had threatened to end her career.
Weinstein denied doing so and "acknowledges making an awkward pass 25 years ago at Ms Thurman in England after misreading her signals, after a flirtatious exchange in Paris, for which he immediately apologized and deeply regrets," his spokeswoman said in a statement received by AFP.
"However, her claims about being physically assaulted are untrue... 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."
Weinstein, who like other men accused of misconduct has been banished from the entertainment industry, is reportedly in treatment for sexual addiction. Until now, he has insisted all his sexual encounters have been consensual.
His lawyer Ben Brafman said Weinstein was "stunned and saddened."
Thurman's comments to the Times "are being carefully examined and investigated before deciding whether any legal action against her would be appropriate," Brafman said in a statement.
