Tarantino calls Uma Thurman's 'Kill Bill' crash "one of the biggest regrets of my life"

Following a storm of criticism on social media, director Quentin Tarantino has publicly apologized to actress Uma Thurman, who gave a lengthy account of abuse at the hands of producer Harvey Weinstein and the director in a Saturday New York Times piece.

“Beyond one of the biggest regrets of my career, it is one of the biggest regrets of my life,” Tarantino told Deadline on Monday about a car crash that happened during filming of the 2003 movie “Kill Bill.” “As a director, you learn things, and sometimes you learn them through horrendous mistakes.”

Thurman and Tarantino are longtime friends and collaborators on several movies, but the “Kill Bill” incident complicated things between them for years. Thurman says Tarantino pressured her to drive down a country road for a scene rather than use a stunt double, and it resulted in Thurman hitting a tree and getting sent to the hospital with neck and knee injuries.

Afterwards, Thurman says, Weinstein’s production company Miramax, which produced the film, hid the car and footage from her and wouldn’t let her investigate the crash unless she signed a release, which she declined. Fifteen years later, Tarantino helped Thurman find the footage buried in a storage facility, which the actress posted on Instagram on Monday.

“For this I hold [producers] Lawrence Bender, E. Bennett Walsh, and the notorious Harvey Weinstein solely responsible,” she wrote to accompany the video. “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.”

She credited Tarantino in the post for apologizing and helping release the footage.

Her complicated history with the two men dates back even further. Before they made “Kill Bill,” Thurman says, Weinstein tried to force himself on her in a London hotel room, then threatened her career if she chose to confront him. Through a spokesperson, Weinstein denied threatening her, though he acknowledged “making a pass” at Thurman, and said he apologized immediately after.

Tarantino forced Weinstein to apologize as a condition of the three making “Kill Bill” together.

The series would net the trio a slew of awards nominations, but it saw further mistreatment for Thurman in the process. When the script called for it, Thurman says Tarantino chose to personally spit on and choke her in scenes, rather than have the actors on screen do it, incidents Tarantino acknowledges but says were done with Thurman’s permission.

Cover: Quentin Tarantino arrives for Sundance NEXT FEST Opening Night honoring him, August 10, 2017, Los Angeles. (Photo by Gabriel Olsen/FilmMagic)