Actress Uma Thurman’s work in the Kill Bill franchise is often labeled as one of her best works. While the franchise may have played a key role in making her popular, there was one incident that would’ve taken Thurman’s life. While shooting the scene where Thurman is driving a convertible, things went horribly wrong as the car slipped off the road and crashed into a palm tree.
It took Thurman 15 years to get her hands on the footage, blaming Quentin Tarantino for forcing her to drive the car against her wish. Things got sketchy when Thurman tried to get the crash footage and was asked to sign a strange contract by Miramax Films, the studio that distributed Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2.
Uma Thurman blamed Quentin Tarantino for her horrible crash on the sets of Kill Bill: Volume 1
While filming Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003), actress Uma Thurman was asked to drive a blue convertible herself. The car had some mechanical issues but the director of the movie, Quentin Tarantino reportedly asked Thurman to drive the car. In an opinionated piece for the New York Times, Uma Thurman claimed,
“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.”
Thurman lost control of the car and hit a palm tree tree, sustaining permanent injuries to her neck and knees. Although Tarantino was apologetic, it affected his relationship with Thurman as things got bitter.
Uma Thurman couldn’t get the footage
Two weeks after the crash, Thurman asked her lawyer to send a letter to Miramax, in an attempt to sue the studios. However, Miramax agreed to show her the footage only if she signed a document “releasing them of any consequences of my future pain and suffering.” Thurman instantly denied it.
The actress was furious about her crash, which she described as “dehumanization to the point of death.” Miramax released the footage in 2018 after Thurman went to police following the accusations of sexual abuse against Harvey Weinstein, claiming that Weinstein s*xually assaulted her in 1994 at the Savoy Hotel in London.
