'He pushed me down': Uma Thurman alleges Harvey Weinstein made unwanted advances

Sara M Moniuszko | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Uma Thurman: Weinstein 'tried to expose himself' In a recent New York Times op-ed, actress Uma Thurman revealed Harvey Weinstein shoved her and 'tried to expose himself.' A Weinstein spokesperson says Weinstein misread her signals.

Corrections & clarifications: An earlier version of this report incorrectly characterized Uma Thurman’s award-winning work. She was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for 'Pulp Fiction.'

Uma Thurman is speaking out against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

The Oscar-nominated actress opened up about her own experience with Weinstein, who she alleges made unwanted advances on her in an New York Times op-ed Saturday.

"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," she said, recalling the alleged "attack" at Weinstein’s suite at the Savoy Hotel in London. "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.”

After the alleged incident, Thurman said she went back to Weinstein to try and clear things up. She remembers giving him warning.

"If you do what you did to me to other people you will lose your career, your reputation and your family, I promise you," she recalled.

Thurman, who starred in Weinstein-produced movies Pulp Fiction (1994) and both volumes of Kill Bill (2003, 2004), also talked about the strange position she was in by being part of films that made the movie mogul rich.

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“I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did. Quentin (Tarantino) used Harvey as the executive producer of Kill Bill, a movie that symbolizes female empowerment," she said. "And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do.”

After meeting Weinstein post-Pulp, however, Thurman said there were no warning signs to suggest inappropriate behavior.

“I knew him pretty well before he attacked me,” she said. “He used to spend hours talking to me about material and complimenting my mind and validating me. It possibly made me overlook warning signs. This was my champion. I was never any kind of studio darling. He had a chokehold on the type of films and directors that were right for me.”

She also called out her former agency, Creative Artists Agency, for aiding Weinstein’s predatory behavior and Tarantino for not taking her seriously the first time she told him about her experience with Weinstein.

"He probably dismissed it like ‘Oh, poor Harvey, trying to get girls he can’t have,’ whatever he told himself, who knows?" Thurman said of Tarantino.

Thurman says it wasn't until she reminded Tarantino of the alleged incident at Cannes Film Festival in 2001 that the Pulp Fiction director confronted Weinstein, and he apologized.

“At some point, his eyes changed and he went from aggressive to ashamed,” Thurman recalled of Weinstein's apology. “I just walked away stunned, like ‘O.K., well there’s my half-assed apology.'"

Through his spokesperson, Weinstein confirmed to the Times that he apologized to Thurman. The statement described their relationship as “a flirtatious and fun working relationship" and also admitted to "making a pass" at Thurman in England after "misreading her signals" in a prior meeting in Paris, where Thurman alleges he lured her into a steam room.

In a statement provided to USA TODAY Saturday by Weinstein's spokeswoman Holly K. Baird, Thurman's claims about physical assault are described as "untrue."

"This is the first time we have heard those details," the statement read. "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."