This weekend, we all watched that viral video of Uma Thurman. She was answering a question from an Access Hollywood reporter, who asked for her response to the ongoing Harvey Weinstein scandal and sexual harassment at large in her industry. Her response was deeply unsettling. You could feel her rage and see her struggling to restrain herself.
Mashable has uncovered a Rolling Stone interview with Thurman from 1989, when she was 19 years old. Thurman, even at that age, and with so much less clout and experience in the industry, bravely talked about feeling objectified by Hollywood.
The journalist, Ben Yagoda, who wrote the profile, spent a lot of time talking about her looks; he even got quotes on the record from other actors about her body. "She has this Jayne Mansfield body and a horrifyingly great brain," said John Malkovich. Yagoda also noted that "gasps have been heard in cinemas nationwide when her breasts are exposed in the film [Dangerous Liaisons].
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He also writes about an incident in which Sylvester Stallone asked Thurman for her number. "I was here last week at the same table," she told Yagoda during the interview. "Sly Stallone was at the next table. He was with a woman, and as soon as she left to go to the ladies' room, he asked me for my phone number. I said I didn't have a phone. I kept putting him down. Finally I said, 'Look, I'll go skywriting and write my number in the sky.'"
An insightful comment comes from a moment in which she is feeding some animals at a park. Writes Yagoda: "Uma leaves the apartment for a trip to nearby Riverside Park. One of her favorite pastimes, she says, is feeding nuts to the squirrels and birds. After one toss, a squirrel tears into a nut with ferocious vigor. 'People are like that too,' Uma says. 'Unfortunately, I'm the prey.'"
We know that Uma will speak out when she's ready. She's clearly indicated as much. But in the meanwhile, it's worth noting that she has spoken out, but at the time, little attention was paid to her words. That article was written in 1989, and since then, it's obvious that she's only collected more stories.
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