With Uma Thurman’s unorthodox upbringing in mind, it’s unsurprising that she has become uber-hip director Quentin Tarantino’s muse. The “Reservoir Dogs” helmer made her a star with the Anna Karina-inspired role of Mia Wallace in the 1994 indie smash “Pulp Fiction”, and with the recent “Kill Bill” films it’s obvious that Tarantino is more than passably entranced by the stunning, six-foot-tall superstar.
Thurman was born in Boston on April 29, 1970, the daughter of former Swedish model Nena von Schlebrugg and Buddhist Studies scholar Robert Thurman. Her gorgeous mother was once married to psychedelic drug pioneer Timothy Leary, while her father was the first American to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk, which resulted in the family receiving visits from the Dalai Lama. Due to her father’s many university appointments, Thurman moved around a lot, and eventually attended the elite Massachusetts boarding school Northfield Mount Hermon which she left at 15 to pursue professional acting in New York City. She quickly found major success as a model, and appeared in several small film roles in the late 80s, most notably Terry Gilliam’s “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” in which she briefly appeared nude in a Botticelli-inspired fantasy sequence.
Her powerful supporting performance in 1988’s “Dangerous Liaisons” put her on the path to stardom, as critics poured praise on the young actress’s ability to match every move of co-stars John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Glenn Close. Two years later Thurman starred with Fred Ward in Philip Kaufman’s striking erotic drama “Henry & June”, which was notorious for being Hollywood’s first NC-17 rated film. A few missteps followed including 1993’s silly Robert De Niro-led “Mad Dog and Glory”, but in 1994 Thurman became a veritable icon with Tarantino’s brilliantly written and hugely popular “Pulp Fiction”. Playing the mysterious wife of a notorious gangster, Thurman’s sexy, tuned-out performance earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Thurman’s esoteric film choices have given her career an up-and-down flavor, though many of her box office ‘failures’ have gone on to become cult classics, including “The Truth About Cats & Dogs”, “Beautiful Girls”, Richard Linklater’s “Tape”, and Andrew Niccol’s stunning sci-fi epic “Gattaca”. The latter film introduced Thurman to sexy writer-actor Ethan Hawke, with whom Thurman had a six-year marriage that produced two children before the couple divorced in 2004. Recently Thurman has had a major career boost with Tarantino’s popular “Kill Bill” films, in which she plays a deadly martial-arts assassin. She has also starred in the “Get Shorty” sequel “Be Cool”, the comedy “Prime” with Meryl Streep, and as ditzy Swedish secretary Ulla in “The Producers”. She is currently on-screen with Luke Wilson in the amusing fantasy-comedy “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”.