The Film Experience

Happy 50th Uma!by Mark Brinkerhoff

There is the world before Uma Thurman, and the world after Uma Thurman—or at the very least for the world of actressexuals (unite!). A movie star like no other, her origins are almost as mythical as her stature. The daughter of an erstwhile Buddhist monk and a former high-fashion model—I kid you not—Uma, as mononymous as any great, was born on this date in 1970 and lived mainly in the rural environs of interior New England and upstate New York (Woodstock, to be exact).

A self-described awkward, introverted child, she nonetheless cut an arresting figure, catching the acting bug early. She followed in her mother’s footsteps as a professional model starting at the tender age of 15.

Uma's early Vogue cover. Shot by Patrick "We have Patrick" de Marchelier

Soon enough she landed in magazines and on the cover—twice—of British Vogue, where her Amazonian proportions and striking visage were put to effective, glam ‘80s use...

I first recall seeing Uma in a 1988 teen comedy (?) entitled Johnny Be Good, which starred Anthony Michael Hall in that halcyon period when he was no longer a pipsqueak (à la Sixteen Candles), but not yet the scary, hulking jock who would appear before us in Edward Scissorhands just a few years later. Uma played, of course, the token girlfriend, and she, like the film itself, didn’t register too prominently. Little did I know then that this was an actress who’d be making big impressions and getting big opportunities to shine that very same year.

Barely an adult, she embodied the Goddess Venus in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and rounded out the year as the nubile Cécile de Volanges in Dangerous Liaisons, holding her own splendidly opposite…Glenn Close and John Malkovich. The ‘90s had loads more in store.

I am mother nature.

When I think of Uma, I think of the 1990s. Sure, she had her share of turkeys (The Avengers, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Final Analysis—oy), but she also had more than a few iconic star turns. And for someone with outsized star power, she met her match with those who, in her, found their muse. Be it a frisson of fluid sexual energy (as in Philip Kauffman’s Henry & June), a shot of pure adrenaline (Quentin Tarantino’s seminal Pulp Fiction), or a taste of poison (Joel Schumacher’s career-icing Batman and Robin), Uma came ready to deliver, with a wink and a nod, as needed. (Why wasn’t everyone else on her Poison Ivy’s wavelength?)

It’s weird to think of Uma, like Jake (or Maggie) Gyllenhaal, as only a one-time, best supporting acting nominee. Even in under-sung supporting roles in ‘90s movies that time forgot (Beautiful Girls, The Truth About Cats & Dogs, etc.), Uma is as winning and as wonderful as the material allows her to be. Which is what makes that rough, dry patch of lackluster projects from the late ‘90s to the early ‘00s ultimately tolerable. There was gold in them thar hills, and it came in the form of Mira Nair’s Hysterical Blindness, immediately followed by the film(s) that became her magnum opus, Kill Bill.

Yes, you should attribute the success of Quentin Tarantino's 2003/04 masterpiece as much to Uma as to him. “The Bride” is a creation that lives or dies on its depiction, and no actor could’ve done it more painful, brutal, brilliant, cathartic justice than Uma (or with as much intense, yet graceful, physicality, I might add). To say that The Bride, Beatrix Kiddo, remains unrivaled in the film, Uma’s filmography or, dare I say, Tarantino’s filmography as a whole, is an understatement. An incredible character like this comes around, inshallah, once in a lifetime, and Uma made the absolute most of it. Today, nearly two decades (!!!) on, Beatrix Kiddo remains as awesomely (re)watchable as ever.

For us Uma fans, the past decade or so has been… a little disappointing. But Hollywood, as we well know, has limited imagination and even more limited motivation to produce high-quality stories for actresses of a certain age, even for ones as talented as Uma. So, while there have been the occasional, scene-stealing ‘Mrs. H’ parts (though, having been thoroughly disgusted by Lars von Trier’s latest, I wouldn’t suggest she work with him a third time), we anxiously await her inevitable return to form. Because, seriously, the time is due. The time is now.

So on this, Uma’s 50th birthday, we wish her all the opportunity and the ability to do what she loves for those of us who’ve loved watching her do it onscreen lo these many years. And, hopefully, many more.