Serial Thriller Going off to gut bad guys like
mackerel and bathe yourself in gore and viscera? A respected actress
would have to be crazy to do that, especially one who has been more art
house than slaughterhouse. Except when you're Uma Thurman. Except when
it works. And taking the role of the Bride in Quentin Tarantino's
two-part splatter-a-go-go ''Kill Bill'' worked just beautifully, thank
you, catapulting Thurman to career-defining raves and into the arms of
John Woo, for whom she played Ben Affleck's girl in ''Paycheck.'' Not
that the revenge flick wasn't a helluva risk or a helluva pain in the
ass.
''It wasn't a job, it was an ordeal,'' says Thurman of ''Bill,''
which spanned 155 days of shooting. ''There was a mountain to climb and
then another and then another and then another and then another. It was
like a sick joke -- we'd get to the top of one hill just to see 10
more.'' This, as it turns out, was no accident. ''I definitely enjoy
presenting Uma as cool and as glamorous as ever,'' explains Tarantino,
''but I love f---ing with her, too.''
Thurman spent months not only as Tarantino's punching bag but as a
tabloid target as well. Her messy split from husband Ethan Hawke broke
just as she was making the talk-show rounds to promote ''Kill Bill,''
yet Thurman handled the family discord with quiet class. Now the
33-year-old mother of two is no longer just eye candy or a Serious
Actress -- though she is both, surely. It turns out she is also a
heartbreaking American babe who can dispatch a hundred ninjas with a
sharp-edged weapon. ''At one point I was scared, and actually passed on
the movie,'' recalls Thurman, who's currently prepping for a reunion
with ''Pulp Fiction'' costar John Travolta in the ''Get Shorty'' sequel
''Be Cool.'' ''Quentin talked me out of it. It was the greatest decision
of my life.'' --by Daniel Fierman
