Uma Thurman is the face of Virgin Media in the United Kingdom and, along with Scarlett Johansson, models handbags and other items for designer Louis Vuitton. At 6ft (1.83 m) tall, she is one of the tallest actresses in American movies
Biography
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Uma Thurman's mother, Nena Birgitte Caroline von
Schlebrügge was a fashion model born in Mexico City,
Mexico in 1941, to German Friedrich Karl Johannes von
Schlebrügge, and Birgit Holmquist, from Trelleborg,
Sweden. In 1930, Birgit Holmquist, Uma Thurman's
grandmother, modeled for a n--- statue that stands
overlooking the harbor of Smygehuk. Uma Thurman's
father, Robert Alexander Farrar Uma Thurman, was born in
New York City to Elizabeth Dean Farrar, a stage actress,
and Beverly Reid Uma Thurman, Jr., an Associated Press
editor and U.N. translator. Uma Thurman's mother was
introduced to LSD guru Timothy Leary by Salvador Dalí;
and married Leary in 1964; then wed Uma Thurman's father
in 1967.
Uma Thurman's father, Robert, a scholar and professor at
Columbia University of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies,
was the first westerner to be ordained as a Tibetan
Buddhist monk. He gave his children a Buddhist
upbringing: Uma is named after an Dbuma Chenpo (in
Tibetan, "db" is silent; Mahamadhyamaka in Sanskrit,
meaning "Great Middle Way") and pronounced /umə/ in
General American, not /jumə/. She has three brothers,
Ganden (b. 1971), Dechen (b. 1973) and Mipam (b. 1978),
and a half-sister named Taya (b. 1960) from her father's
previous marriage. She and her siblings spent time in
Almora, India as children, and the Dalai Lama sometimes
visited their home.
Uma Thurman grew up mostly in Amherst, Massachusetts and
Woodstock, New York. She is described as having been an
awkward and introverted girl who was teased for her tall
frame, angular bone structure, unusual name (sometimes
using the name “Uma Karen” instead of her birth name)
and size 11 feet (Uma Thurman's large feet would later
be filmed by Quentin Tarantino in the films he made with
her). When she was 10 years old, a friend's mother
suggested a nose job.
As a child, she suffered bouts of body dysmorphic
disorder, which she discussed in an interview with Talk
magazine in 2001.
Uma Thurman attended Northfield Mount Hermon, a college
preparatory boarding school in Northfield,
Massachusetts, where she was earned average grades, but
excelled in acting. Talent scouts noticed her
performance as Abigail in a production of The Crucible,
and offered her the chance to act professionally. Uma
Thurman moved to New York City to pursue acting and to
attend the Professional Children's School, but she
dropped out before graduating.
Uma Thurman as Venus in 1988’s The Adventures of Baron
Munchausen.Uma Thurman began her career as a fashion
model at age 15. She signed with the agency Click
Models. Her modeling credits included Glamour Magazine.
In 1989, she appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone
magazine's annual “Hot issue”.
Uma Thurman made her movie debut in 1988, appearing in
four films that year. Her first two were the high school
comedy Johnny Be Good and the teen thriller Kiss Daddy
Goodnight.. Uma Thurman appeared in The Adventures of
Baron Munchausen, playing the goddess Venus alongside
Oliver Reed’s Vulcan. During her entrance Uma Thurman
briefly appears n--- in a homage to Botticelli’s
painting The Birth of Venus. With a budget of $46
million and box office receipts of only $8 million, the
film was a commercial failure.
Her breakthrough came in her role as Cecile de Volanges
in Dangerous Liaisons. Actresses Glenn Close and
Michelle Pfeiffer earned Oscar nominations for their
performances, and Uma Thurman drew attention for her
topless scene in the film. At the time, she was insecure
about her appearance, and fled to London for almost a
year, during which she wore only loose, baggy clothing.
Soon after the release of Dangerous Liaisons, the media
were eager to profile Uma Thurman. She was praised by
her co-star John Malkovich, who said of her, “There is
nothing twitchy teenager-ish about her, I haven’t met
anyone like her at that age. Her intelligence and poise
stand out. But there’s something else. She’s more than a
little haunted”.
In 1990, Uma Thurman co-starred with Fred Ward in the
s--ually provocative drama Henry & June, the first film
to receive an NC-17 rating. Because of the rating, it
never played in a wide release but critics embraced her;
The New York Times wrote, “Uma Thurman, as the
Brooklyn-accented June, takes a larger-than-life
character and makes her even bigger, though the
performance is often as curious as it is commanding”.
Uma Thurman’s first starring role in a major production
was Gus Van Sant's 1993 adaptation of Tom Robbins' Even
Cowgirls Get the Blues. It was a critical and financial
disappointment; Uma Thurman was nominated for a Worst
Actress Razzie. The Washington Post described her acting
as shallow, writing that, “Uma Thurman’s strangely
passive characterization doesn’t go much deeper than
drawling and flexing her prosthetic thumbs”. Uma Thurman
also starred opposite Robert De Niro in the drama Mad
Dog and Glory, another box office disappointment. Later
that year, she auditioned for Stanley Kubrick while he
was casting a movie to be called Wartime Lies, which was
never produced. She described working with him as a
“really bad experience”.
After Mad Dog and Glory, Uma Thurman auditioned for
Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, which would become one
of the most successful cult hits of all time, grossing
over $107 million on a budget of only $8 million USD.
The Washington Post wrote that Uma Thurman was “serenely
unrecognizable in a black wig, and is marvelous as a
zoned-out gangster’s girlfriend”. Noted SA J. Sidebottom
was behind Uma's hairstyle and was at first very much
opposed to the use of a wig to conjure the iconic look
he sought. After a brief departure from the film's crew,
Sidebottom was ultimately convinced by Tarantino that
the faux-nature of the wig was consistent with the motif
of the film. Uma Thurman was nominated for the Best
Supporting Actress Oscar the following year.
Entertainment Weekly claimed that, “of the five women
nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category this
year, only Uma Thurman can claim that her performance
gave the audience fits”. Uma Thurman also became one of
Tarantino’s favorite actresses to cast, stating in a
2003 issue of Time: “Uma Thurman’s up there with Garbo
and Dietrich in goddess territory”.
She starred opposite Janeane Garofalo in the moderately
successful 1996 romantic comedy The Truth About Cats &
Dogs as a ditzy blonde supermodel. In 1998, she starred
opposite her future husband Ethan Hawke in the dystopian
science fiction film Gattaca. Although Gattaca was not a
success at the box office, it drew many positive reviews
and became successful on the home video market, some
critics were not as impressed with Uma Thurman, such as
the Los Angeles Times which stated she was “as
emotionally uninvolved as ever”.
The two biggest film flops of Uma Thurman’s career came
in 1997 and 1998. She played Poison Ivy in Batman &
Robin, the fourth film of the popular franchise. Batman
& Robin became one of the largest critical flops in
history. Uma Thurman’s performance in the campy film
received mixed reviews, and critics compared her with
actress Mae West. The New York Times wrote, “like Mae
West, she mixes true femininity with the winking
womanliness of a drag queen”. A similar comparison was
made by the Houston Chronicle: “Uma Thurman, to arrive
at a ’40s femme fatale, sometimes seems to be doing Mae
West by way of Jessica Rabbit”. The next year brought
The Avengers, another major financial and critical flop.
CNN described Uma Thurman as, “so distanced you feel
like you’re watching her through the wrong end of a
telescope”. She received Razzie Award nominations for
both films. She closed out 1998 with Les Misérables, a
film version of Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name,
directed by Bille August, in which she played Fantine.
After the birth of her first baby in 1998, Uma Thurman
took a rest from major roles to concentrate on
motherhood. Her next roles were in low-budget and
television films, including Tape, Vatel, and Hysterical
Blindness. In 2000 she narrated a theatrical work by
composer John Moran entitled Book of the Dead (2nd
Avenue) at The Public Theater. She won a Golden Globe
award for Hysterical Blindness, a film for which she
also served as executive producer. In the film she
played a New Jersey woman in the 1980s searching for
romance. The San Francisco Chronicle review wrote, “Uma
Thurman so commits herself to the role, eyes blazing and
body akimbo, that you start to believe that such a
creature could exist — an exquisite looking woman so
spastic and needy that she repulses regular Joes. Uma
Thurman has bent the role to her will”.
After a five-year hiatus, Uma Thurman returned in 2003
in John Woo's film Paycheck, followed by Tarantino's,
Kill Bill. Paycheck was only moderately successful with
critics and at the box office, but Kill Bill relaunched
her career.
In Kill Bill she played assassin Beatrix Kiddo, out for
revenge against her former lover. Tarantino wrote the
part specifically for her. He also cited Uma Thurman as
his muse while writing the film, and also gave her joint
credit for the character, whom the two conceived on the
set of Pulp Fiction from the sole image of a bride
covered in blood.
Production was delayed for several months after Uma
Thurman became pregnant, as Tarantino refused to recast
the part. The film took nine months to shoot, and was
filmed in five different countries. The role was also
her most demanding , and she spent three months training
in martial arts, swordsmanship, and Japanese. The
two-part action epic became an instant cult classic and
scored highly with critics. The film series earned Uma
Thurman Golden Globe nominations for both entries, and
three MTV Movie Awards for Best Female Performance and
twice for Best Fight. Rolling Stone likened Uma Thurman
to “an avenging angel out of a 1940s Hollywood
melodrama”.
The inspirations for “The Bride” were several B-movie
action heroines. Uma Thurman's main inspiration for the
role was the title character of Coffy (played by Pam
Grier) and the character of Gloria Swenson from Gloria
(played by Gena Rowlands). She said that the two
characters are “two of the only women I've ever seen be
truly women while holding a weapon”. Coffy was screened
for Uma Thurman by Tarantino prior to beginning
production on the film, to help her model the character.
By 2005, Uma Thurman was one of Hollywood's highest paid
actresses, commanding a salary of $12.5 million per
film. Her first film of the year was Be Cool, the sequel
to 1995's Get Shorty, which reunited her with her Pulp
Fiction castmate John Travolta. In the film she played
the widow of a deceased music business executive. The
film received poor reviews, and came in below
expectations at the box office. In 2005 she starred in
Prime with Meryl Streep, playing a woman in her late
thirties romancing a man in his early twenties. Uma
Thurman's last film of the year was a remake of The
Producers in which she played Ulla, a Swedish stage
actress hoping to win a part in a new Broadway musical.
Originally, the producers of the film planned to have
another singer dub in Uma Thurman's musical numbers, but
she was eager to do her own vocals, She is credited for
her songs in the credits. The film was considered a bomb
at the box office, but many praised Uma Thurman's
efforts, including A. O. Scott of the New York Times who
said: "Uma Thurman as a would-be actress is the one bit
of genuine radiance in this aggressively and pointlessly
shiny, noisy spectacle."
With a successful film career, Uma Thurman once again
became a desired model. Cosmetics company Lancôme
selected her as their spokeswoman, and named several
shades of lipstick after her, though they were sold only
in Asia). In 2005, she became a spokeswoman for the
French fashion house Louis Vuitton.
On February 7, 2006, Uma Thurman was named a knight of
the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France for
outstanding achievement in the field of art and
literature.
In May 2006 Uma Thurman bought the film rights to the
Frank Schätzing novel "The Swarm", which is in
development and due for release in 2008.
In July 2006 Uma Thurman starred opposite Luke Wilson in
My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Uma Thurman portrayed a
super-heroine named "G-Girl" who is dumped by her
boyfriend and then takes her revenge upon him. Uma
Thurman received a reported $14 million for the role,
but the film flopped. Once again Uma Thurman was
well-received, yet the film was not.
In February 2008 she starred opposite Colin Firth and
Jeffrey Dean Stanton in The Accidental Husband, a
romantic comedy about a woman who finds herself married
while engaged to another man. It seems like archetypal
Hollywood contrivance, but according to Uma Thurman a
similar situation happened in New York.
Bollywood director Vishal Bharadwaj has announced his
interest in Uma Thurman to star in his latest film
venture opposite Hrithik Roshan, in a biographical film
of the life of actress Nadira. The film is still in its
pre-production stage.
Uma Thurman supports the United States Democratic Party,
and has given money to the campaigns of John Kerry,
Hillary Clinton, and Joseph Driscoll. She supports gun
control laws, and in 2000, she participated in Marie
Claire’s “End Gun Violence Now” campaign. She also
participated in Planned Parenthood’s “March for Women’s
Lives” to support the legality of abortion. Uma Thurman
is a member of the board of the New York- and
Boston-based organization Room to Grow, a charitable
organization providing aid to families and children born
into poverty. She serves on the board of the Tibet
House.
In 2007, Uma Thurman hosted the Nobel Peace Prize
Concert in Oslo, Norway with actor Kevin Spacey.
Uma Thurman owns a townhouse in New York's Greenwich
Village, but lives in Hyde Park, New York. Though raised
a Buddhist, she considers herself agnostic. Uma Thurman
is engaged to marry London based Franco-Swiss financier
Arpad Busson, supermodel Elle Macpherson's former
partner, whom she began dating in summer 2007. Their
romance began at a private dinner in Milan co-hosted by
Gianni Versace and Tony Blair. People magazine confirmed
on June 27, 2008 that Uma Thurman and Busson are
engaged. Uma Thurman has been twice married previously.
While living in London after shooting Dangerous
Liaisons, she began dating director Phil Joanou. On the
set of State Of Grace, she met English actor Gary Oldman.
They were married in 1990, but the marriage ended in
1992.
On May 1, 1998, she married actor Ethan Hawke, whom she
met on the set of Gattaca; he dedicated his novel To
Karuna to her. Uma Thurman acknowledged that they had
married because she was pregnant; at their wedding she
was seven months along. The marriage produced two
children, daughter Maya Ray Uma Thurman-Hawke (b. July
8, 1998) and son Levon Roan Uma Thurman-Hawke (b.
January 15, 2002).
In 2003, Uma Thurman and Hawke separated, and in 2004
they filed for divorce. When asked on The Oprah Winfrey
Show if there was “betrayal of some kind” during the
marriage, Uma Thurman said, “There was some stuff like
that at the end. We were having a difficult time, and
you know how the axe comes down and how people behave
and how people express their unhappiness”.
Director Quentin Tarantino has described Uma Thurman as
his "muse." However, in a 2004 Rolling Stone cover
story, Uma Thurman and Tarantino denied having had a
romantic relationship, despite Tarantino once having
told a reporter, “I’m not saying that we haven’t, and
I’m not saying that we have”.
From 2004 to 2007, Uma Thurman was linked with New York
hotelier Andre Balazs. At one point, they lived in a
loft in New York City's SoHo neighborhood, down the
street from Balazs' Mercer Hotel. They split in March
2007. Uma Thurman you are the best!