Keith Adams said no one from the stunt department was called on to Kill Bill’s set.
The stunt coordinator Keith Adams who worked on Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill has said that he was not scheduled to work on the day Uma Thurman’s accident occurred. Uma Thurman, who worked with Tarantino in multiple movies, had said in a New York Times story titled This Is Why Uma Thurman Is Angry that the director forced her to do the stunt that grievously injured her. Tarantino had responded later, saying that he considered that stunt to be the biggest regret of his life.
Keith Adams, in an email to The Hollywood Reporter, said, ““No stunts of any kind were scheduled for the day of Ms. Thurman’s accident. All of the stunt department was put on hold and no one from the stunt department was called to set. At no point was I notified or consulted about Ms. Thurman driving a car on camera that day.”
He also said that he would have insisted on putting a professional behind the wheel. “Had I been involved, I would have insisted not only on putting a professional driver behind the wheel but also insuring that the car itself was road-worthy and safe,” he said.
While responding to Uma Thurman’s accusation, Tarantino had said in an interview to Deadline that he did not know the road on which Uma Thurman was going to drive was not a straight road. “She showed up, in a good mood. We did the shot. And she crashed. At first, no one really knew what happened. After the crash, when Uma went to the hospital, I was feeling in total anguish at what had happened.
“I walked the road, going the opposite direction. And in walking the road, going in the other direction…I don’t know how a straight road turns into an un-straight road, but it wasn’t as straight. It wasn’t the straight shot that it had been, going the other way. There is a little mini S-curve that almost seemed like it opened up to a mini fork in the road,” he had said.