Uma Thurman revealed she came close to a fatal accident while filming a scene for the Kill Bill series, implicating director Quentin Tarantino in the incident to some degree.
Since its debut more than twenty years ago, Kill Bill has quickly attracted a loyal following, eager for its intense action. However, the series was not without its controversies.
In 2018, Thurman shared footage of a car accident on the set of Kill Bill: Vol. 2 in Mexico in 2004, which resulted in her sustaining serious injuries.
Initially hesitant to publicly hold Tarantino accountable, Thurman later shared on Instagram that “the circumstances of this event were negligent to the point of criminality.”
She further expressed that 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.”
In an interview with the New York Times over a decade later, Thurman discussed how she felt pushed “to the point of death” when she was asked to drive a stunt car for the sequel—despite her discomfort with the task.
“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,” the 62-year-old recalled.
“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.”
Regarding the crash itself, Thurman recounted: “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, a large massive egg on my head, and a concussion, I wanted to see the car and I was very upset.”
She recounted a heated argument with Tarantino and even accused him of trying to kill her.
“Quentin and I had an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me,” she said. “He was very angry at that, I guess understandably, because he didn’t feel he had tried to kill me.
Since then, Thurman and Tarantino have reconciled, and the Pulp Fiction director informed Deadline that Thurman contacted him before the New York Times article was published.
The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood director reflected on the crash day, explaining how he instructed Thurman to drive in the opposite direction on the ‘straight road’ due to lighting conditions.
This decision remains one of the filmmaker’s “biggest regrets.”
“I thought, a straight road is a straight road and I didn’t think I needed to run the road again to make sure there wasn’t any difference, going in the opposite direction,” he said.
“Again, that is one of the biggest regrets of my life.”