Producer Lawrence Bender has expressed his “deep regret” over Uma Thurman’s car crash on the set of 2003 movie Kill Bill.
The actress recently told The New York Times that director Quentin Tarantino pressured her to drive a car even though she didn’t think the vehicle or the road were safe, and asked a stunt driver to do the scene instead. She eventually agreed to do it and ended up crashing into a palm tree and being hospitalized, and has spent years trying to obtain footage of the crash, which she went public with over the weekend (03-04Feb18).
Tarantino opened up about the accident, calling it “one of my most horrendous mistakes”, and now his frequent collaborator Bender has issued a statement expressing similar sentiments.
“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,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “The safety of the professionals who work on the movies I produce is vital to me and I never want to let anyone down.”
After Tarantino received backlash online following the publication of the piece, Uma took to Instagram to defend him, saying he found the footage for her even though it would cause him personal harm. She then accused Bender, E. Bennett Walsh and Harvey Weinstein of being solely responsible for covering up the accident for 15 years.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Be0x6OCFRwQ/?hl=en&taken-by=ithurman
Weinstein’s representatives have denied he orchestrated a cover-up and Bender has followed suit, adding, “I never hid anything from Uma or anyone else nor did I participate in any cover up of any kind – and I never would.”
“I was informed of Uma’s feelings in regard to this incident a few months ago and 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,” he continued. “I wanted to make sure she had all of the answers she had been seeking. I have great respect for Uma Thurman, both as an artist and a person, and only wish her well.”
