‘Kill Bill’ producer Lawrence Bender has publicly apologized to Uma Thurman after The Bride actress released disturbing video footage of an on-set car accident she says ‘nearly killed’ her.
Bender also suggests he ‘never hid anything from Uma or anyone else’ and did not ‘participate in any cover up,’ in the apology statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter.
‘I deeply regret that Uma suffered the pain she has, both physically and emotionally, for all of these years from the accident that occurred on the set of Kill Bill,’ Bender said.
The 47-year-old Thurman posted shocking footage of the brutal crash that occurred on the set of the film in 2002 to her Instagram account.
The actress can be seen struggling to control the car as she careens off a dirt road and into a tree, with her body then laying motionless and limp in the driver’s seat until she is pulled out by members of the crew.
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Producer Lawrence Bender (pictured left) apologized to Uma Thurman (right) after she released a video of a ‘Kill Bill’ set crash she says nearly paralyzed her
Director Quentin Tarantino, Uma Thurman and producer Lawrence Bender attend the ‘Clouds Of Sils Maria’ premiere during the 67th Annual Cannes Film Festival in May 2014 in Cannes, France.
The Bride’s ride: Thurman released the video footage of her 2002 crash on the set of ‘Kill Bill’, showing the moment of impact and aftermath (still from film of the footage of ride)
She further writes that while she wants to show that ‘the circumstances of this event were negligent to the point of criminality, she ‘does not believe though with malicious intent.’
The producer told The Hollywood Reporter he was made aware of Thurman’s ‘feelings in regard to this incident’ a few months back.
‘I have done my best over this time to get as much verifiable information from all of the relevant sources that I could and shared it with Quentin… I wanted to make sure she had all of the answers she had been seeking,’ Bender went on to say.
He concludes: ‘I have great respect for Uma Thurman, both as an artist and a person, and only wish her well.’
Meanwhile, Thurman excused director Quentin Tarantino for some of the blame in the crash while indicting Harvey Weinstein and her agents at CAA.
Thurman is pictured filming the final sequence again in a studio. When she crashed, she was on a sand road in Mexico and was driving a car she thought was unsafe
Thurman claims she begged director Quentin Tarantino not to let her perform the stunt but that he insisted it was safe. After the accident, she said he was remorseful but withheld footage of it from her for years, purportedly to protect himself, Miramax and Harvey Weinstein, the film’s producer, from liability. They are seen above in 2003
‘Quentin Tarantino, was deeply regretful and remains remorseful about this sorry event, and gave me the footage years later so i could expose it and let it see the light of day, regardless of it most likely being an event for which justice will never be possible,’ writes Thurman
‘He also 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 then adds: ‘THE COVER UP after the fact is UNFORGIVABLE.’
Thurman then starts naming names.
‘For this I hold Lawrence Bender, E. Bennett Walsh, and the notorious Harvey Weinstein solely responsible,’ says Thurman.
‘They lied, destroyed evidence, and continue to lie about the permanent harm they caused and then chose to suppress.’
She goes on to note: ‘The cover up did have malicious intent, and shame on these three for all eternity.’
She finishes by laying into her agency at the time.
‘CAA never sent anyone to Mexico,’ writes Thurman.
‘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.’
The actress revealed the incident in an article with The New York Times on Saturday and provided video footage of it which she says Tarantino has been withholding from her for 15 years but finally gave her recently.
It shows her struggling to keep control of a convertible Karmann Ghia then crashing into a palm tree and lying completely still for several seconds as crew hands then Tarantino himself rush over.
Thurman says she thought she was paralyzed by the stunt and that she had begged Tarantino not to make her perform it.
His refusal to listen to her and his alleged coldness to her afterwards felt like ‘dehumanization to the point of death’.
She said it was indicative of the mistreatment she received by Tarantino and Harvey Weinstein, who she claimed for the first time on Saturday tried to force himself on her, during their iconic working relationship.
The incident occurred in Mexico in 2002 as they finished filming for Kill Bill Vol. 1. It would later be split into two parts by Weinstein who was the producer.
The scene in question is the famous moment Thurman’s character at the end of the first film along a winding road.
Thurman did not reveal on Saturday whether the finished article was genuinely her driving down a road. She shared a screen grab of it on Instagram in November when she threatened to expose Weinstein for his alleged misconduct of her.
Thurman’s husband at the time Ethan Hawke corroborated her story about the crash and said he confronted Tarantino about it after she was released from hospital. They are pictured before their separation in 2005
She was hesitant about filming it herself and wanted a stunt double to do the difficult driving because, she claimed, the car was unsafe.
It had been reconfigured to from a stick-shift to an automatic and Thurman claimed a crew member expressed concern to her that it was not working properly.
‘Quentin came in my trailer and didn’t like to hear no, like any director.
‘He was furious because I’d cost them a lot of time. But I was scared. He said: ‘I promise you the car is fine. It’s a straight piece of road.’
‘Hit 40 miles per hour or your hair won’t blow the right way and I’ll make you do it again.’
‘But that was a deathbox that I was in. The seat wasn’t screwed down properly. It was a sand road and it was not a straight road,’ she said.
In the footage she provided to the Times, Thurman is seen ploughing into a palm tree then lying back motionless in the immediate aftermath.
Crew members and Tarantino rushed over and got her head, bringing her a bottle of water and speaking to her to calm her down.
She had to be carried off set and was taken to hospital.
‘The steering wheel was at my belly and my legs were jammed under me.
‘I felt this searing pain and thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m never going to walk again,”.
‘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.
‘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 said.
For years, they continued to fight over it and she begged him to show her the footage but he always refused. Ethan Hawke, her husband at the time, corroborated her account.
I felt this searing pain and thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m never going to walk again’
‘I approached Quentin in very serious terms and told him that he had let Uma down as a director and as a friend.’ He said Tarantino was ‘very upset’ and ‘asked for his forgiveness.’
Afterwards, Thurman’s lawyer sent a letter to Miramax demanding a copy of the video.
They refused to give it to her unless she agreed that she would not hold the production company accountable for ‘future pain or suffering’.
Thurman refused to agree to those terms and has, for the last 15 years, been trying to get the footage from Tarantino himself.
The issue has been a thorn in their friendship and working relationship, she said.
‘We were in a terrible fight for years. We had to then go through promoting the movies. It was all very thin ice.
‘We had a fateful fight at Soho House in New York in 2004 and we were shouting at each other because he wouldn’t let me see the footage and he told me that was what they had all decided,’ she said.
Thurman shared a photograph from the scene which made it into the movie on Thanksgiving when she alluded to how Weinstein had sexually attacked her
Thurman claims Weinstein forced himself on her in a hotel room in London between Pulp Fiction (1994) and Kill Bill (2003). They are pictured with Tarantino, who she says knew about it, in 2004 promoting Kill Bill Vol. 2
After the Weinstein scandal broke, Tarantino gave it to her. She equates it with him ‘atoning’ for the danger he put her in and the pair are on good terms.
‘Quentin finally atoned by giving it to me after 15 years, right? Not that it matters now, with my permanently damaged neck and my screwed-up knees.’
She has since handed it along with her correspondence with Miramax to police in the hope that they will be held accountable.
The row left her feeling belittled by Miramax, Weinstein and Tarantino.
‘Harvey assaulted me but that didn’t kill me.
‘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?’
Representatives for Tarantino did not respond to DailyMail.com’s requests on Saturday morning nor did Miramax.
In her interview, Thurman also claimed that she was sexually attacked by Weinstein in London’s Savoy Hotel, sometime after they became acquaintances while promoting Pulp Fiction.
‘Harvey assaulted me but that didn’t kill me. ‘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.
‘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,’ she said.
On a previous occasion, she said he tried to proposition her in a hotel steam room but that she escaped and he ‘ran out’.
Weinstein, who remains in Arizona maintaining a low profile since the accusations against him emerged in October, admitted the steam room incident but denied the violence.
‘Mr. Weinstein 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.
‘However, her claims about being physically assaulted are untrue. And this is the first time we have heard those details.
‘There was no physical contact during Mr. Weinstein’s awkward pass and 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, noting that he and Ms. Thurman have shared a very close and mutually beneficial working relationship where they have made several very successful film projects together.
‘This is the first time we are hearing that she considered Mr. Weinstein an enemy and the pictures of their history tell a completely different story.
‘There will be more are detailed response later from Mr. Weinstein’s attorney, Ben Brafman.’
HARVEY WEINSTEIN DENIES ATTACKING UMA THURMAN
In response to Thurman’s claims, a representative for Weinstein sent photographs to DailyMail.com of the pair together in the years after the attack in an attempt to disprove her.
‘In accompanying statement, they said: ‘We have pulled a number of images that demonstrate the strong relationship Mr. Weinstein and Ms. Thurman had had over the years and we wish the New York Times would have published them.
One of the images Weinstein’s reps shared which he says disproves Thurman’s claims is this one from a luncheon taken in January 2016
‘Mr. Weinstein 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. However, her claims about being physically assaulted are untrue. And this is the first time we have heard those details.
‘There was no physical contact during Mr. Weinstein’s awkward pass and 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, noting that he and Ms. Thurman have shared a very close and mutually beneficial working relationship where they have made several very successful film projects together.
‘This is the first time we are hearing that she considered Mr. Weinstein an enemy and the pictures of their history tell a completely different story.
‘There will be more are detailed response later from Mr. Weinstein’s attorney, Ben Brafman.