Uma Karmann and the Thurman Ghia

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Last weekend, actress Uma Thurman told the New York Times about the filming of Kill Bill in 2002. Particularly about her driving a classic car at high speed on a gravel road in Mexico - against her will. It lead to a crash, which causes her troubles to this day, she unveiled. The article with the crash footage can be found here.

What went wrong? The script saw a driving scene with Thurman in the Volkswagen convertible. The car was claimed to have been modified from manual to automatic gearbox but the actress feared it was unsafe for her to drive and she asked for a stunt double after a crew member supposedly expressed concern to her that the conversion was not working properly. Enter the film’s director Quentin Tarantino. From the interview: “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.’”

And so he managed to persuade Thurman to do the scene. But her fear became reality when she lost control and crashed the car into a tree. Thurman: “'It 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. I felt this searing pain and thought, Oh my God, I’m never going to walk again”. She was taken to hospital and left with a brace, a concussion, serious neck pain and a relation with Tarantino gone wrong. For years, she has been trying to obtain the footage of the crash but the director and his producer – Harvey Weinstein - refused. Unless she agreed not to hold them responsible for any suffering. Now, over 15 years and a huge Weinstein scandal later, Tarantino gave it to her. Thurman: “Quentin finally atoned by giving it to me after 15 years, right? Not that it matters now, with my permanently damaged neck and my screwed-up knees.”

Never the less, it would be interesting to see what the car looked like after the crash. Anyone know what happened to it? Or has all the provenance of the crash been wiped out by now...?

(Words Jeroen Booij, picture Miramax pictures)

 

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