Uma Thurman shared footage of the “Kill Bill” crash that nearly cost her life as she expressed pride in director Quentin Tarantino and doubled down on her condemnation of Harvey Weinstein.
The footage of the on-set car crash in Mexico — which was first published Saturday in the New York Times — has no audio, but clearly shows Thurman seriously injured after her speeding car veers and crashes into a palm tree.
In the immediate aftermath, she grabs her head, then quickly slumps back in visible pain while crew members come to her aid. They eventually remove her from the car.
Thurman shared the footage on Instagram Monday in order to, she wrote, “memorialize its full exposure” in light of the Times piece, which detailed her own Harvey Weinstein sexual assault story.
“The circumstances of this event were negligent to the point of criminality. I do not believe though with malicious intent,” she wrote.
The actress, 47, said she received the footage from a “deeply regretful” Tarantino years after the fact so that she could share it as she saw fit.
“He did so with full knowledge it could cause him personal harm, and I am proud of him for doing the right thing and for his courage,” she wrote.
Thurman’s niceties stopped there, though, as she ripped into the trio she holds accountable for the great lengths they went to in an attempt to cover up the accident: producer Lawrence Bender, executive producer E. Bennett Walsh and the “notorious” Weinstein.
“THE COVER UP after the fact is UNFORGIVABLE,” she said. “They lied, destroyed evidence, and continue to lie about the permanent harm they caused and then chose to suppress. The cover up did have malicious intent, and shame on these three for all eternity.”
Thurman also lashed out at her agency at the time, CAA, for failing to send someone to Mexico to check up on her.
“I hope they look after other clients more respectfully if they in fact want to do the job for which they take money with any decency,” she wrote.
The actress brought forth the shocking details of the car crash in the Times, and revealed how the accident soured her relationship with Tarantino, who once considered the blonde his muse.
Thurman explained that Tarantino wanted her to drive a blue convertible in one of “Kill Bill”s most famous scenes, but that she objected after hearing from a teamster that the vehicle might have operating problems.
She asked for a stunt person to take her place, angering Tarantino, who Thurman said came to her trailer “furious” and persuaded her to complete the scene with promises that it would be perfectly safe.
She had her reservations — “That was a deathbox that I was in,” she said — but agreed anyway.
Thurman said that after the car crashed, she thought she’d never walk again — and that her request to see footage was promptly rejected by the famed director.
“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 told the Times. “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.”
Thurman said she tried to obtain footage of the crash, but Miramax would only grant her permission if she signed a contract that released them “of any consequences of my future pain and suffering,” she said.
The actress said the incident and subsequent fallout strained her relationship with Tarantino for years, and that he finally gave in 15 years later.
“Harvey assaulted me but that didn’t kill me,” she says. “What really got me about the crash was that it was a cheap shot. I had been through so many rings of fire by that point. I had really always felt a connection to the greater good in my work with Quentin and most of what I allowed to happen to me and what I participated in was kind of like a horrible mud wrestle with a very angry brother. But at least I had some say, you know?”