An actress noted as much for her exotic, almost
otherworldly beauty as she is for her considerable talent, Uma Thurman is
one of the most renowned actresses of her generation. The daughter of
celebrated professor of Buddhist Studies Robert F. A. Thurman and Nena von
Schlebrugge, a model and psychotherapist who was once married to Timothy
Leary, Thurman was born in Boston on April 29, 1970. Raised with three
brothers in Amherst, where her father taught at Amherst College, she
enjoyed a fairly bohemian upbringing, one that was marked by visits from
Eastern holy men and Tibetan refugees. Encouraged to think for herself and
to be independent, Thurman, who had been interested in acting from an
early age, left her Massachusetts boarding school at the age of 15 to
pursue an acting career. Moving to New York, she earned a living by
washing dishes and modeling, though the latter means of support never
agreed with her. The fledgling actress made her debut in Kiss Daddy
Goodnight (1987), a forgettable film that cast her as a teen vamp who
seduces and robs unsuspecting men. She also had a starring role in the
teen comedy Johnny Be Good (1988), but it was with her casting in Stephen
Frears' Dangerous Liaisons (1988) as Cecile de Volanges, the
impressionable convent girl deflowered by John Malkovich's slimy Vicomte
de Valmont, that Thurman first gained recognition. Her scenes with
Malkovich, particularly the one in which he offered to teach her a few
bedroom terms in Latin, proved to be some of the most memorable of the
year, resulting in a sizable helping of fame for the young actress.
Further recognition followed with Thurman's portrayal of Henry Miller's
wife -- and the object of both his and Anais Nin's affections -- in Philip
Kaufman's Henry and June (1990). Unfortunately, the actress' role in the
NC-17 film -- which required her to take part in explicit love scenes with
Maria de Medeiros -- inspired a great deal of unwelcome, stalker-like
attention from any number of "fans," causing Thurman to shy away
from doing a subsequent number of films. The projects she did take part in
-- Robin Hood (1991), Final Analysis (1992), Jennifer 8 (1992), Mad Dog
and Glory (1993), Gus Van Sant's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1994) -- all
proved to be forgettable affairs. By the time she received the script for
Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Thurman's career was in great need of
resuscitation. Fortunately, Pulp Fiction provided just that. A huge,
unanticipated success, Pulp Fiction was the most talked-about film of the
year, eventually becoming recognized as one of the most influential films
of the decade. For her part, Thurman gave a sly, smoldering performance as
Mia Wallace, the coke-snorting wife of gangster Marsellus Wallace, and
soon found herself enjoying both a Best Supporting Actress Oscar
nomination and an accompanying resurgence in Hollywood popularity. She
followed the success of Pulp Fiction with three relatively modest romantic
comedies, A Month by the Lake (1995), The Truth About Cats and Dogs
(1996), and Beautiful Girls (1996). The 1997 future dystopia Gattaca did
little for Thurman but introduce her to co-star and future husband Ethan
Hawke (the two married in May of 1998 and had a daughter later that year;
Thurman had been married once before, to Gary Oldman); Batman and Robin,
that same year, was less than a bright spot in Thurman's career. 1998
proved to be similarly disappointing, with both The Avengers, which cast
the actress as the cat-suited Emma Peel opposite Ralph Fiennes' John
Steed, and Bille August's Les Miserables experiencing swift deaths at the
box office. Thurman resurfaced in 1999 in Woody Allen's widely acclaimed
Sweet and Lowdown. The story of a famed jazz guitarist (Sean Penn) whose
talent is inversely proportional to his merits as a human being, it cast
Thurman as his brilliant but unfaithful wife. |