Uma Thurman

Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American actress, writer, producer and model. She has performed in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films. Following her appearances on the December 1985 and May 1986 covers of British Vogue, she made her film debut in Kiss Daddy Goodnight (1987), featuring Steve Buscemi in a small role. Her breakthrough role was Stephen Frears’s Dangerous Liaisons (1988), with Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick, Peter Capaldi, and Keanu Reeves. Other films around this time include Johnny Be Good (1988), with Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr., Paul Gleason, Steve James, and Jennifer Tilly; and Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), with John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Robin Williams, and Valentina Cortese.

Films in the early 1990s include John Boorman’s Where the Heart Is (1990), with Dabney Coleman, Joanna Cassidy, Crispin Glover, Suzy Amis, and Christopher Plummer; Philip Kaufman’s Henry & June (1990), with Fred Ward, Maria de Medeiros, and Richard E. Grant; Robin Hood (1991), with Patrick Bergin, Jürgen Prochnow, Jeroen Krabbé, and Edward Fox; Final Analysis (1992), with Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, Eric Roberts, Keith David, and Paul Guilfoyle; Bruce Robinson’s Jennifer 8 (1992), with Andy García, Lance Henriksen, Kathy Baker, Graham Beckel, Kevin Conway, and Malkovich; John McNaughton’s Mad Dog and Glory (1993), with Robert De Niro, Bill Murray, Richard Belzer, and David Caruso; and Gus Van Sant’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), with Lorraine Bracco, Angie Dickinson, Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, Reeves, John Hurt, and Rain Phoenix.

She rose to international prominence with her performance as Mia Wallace in Quentin Tarantino‘s Pulp Fiction (1994), with John Travolta. Samuel L. Jackson, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, de Medeiros, Ving Rhames, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken, and Bruce Willis; for which she was nominated for the Academy Award, the BAFTA Award, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Often hailed as Tarantino’s muse, she reunited with the director to play the main role of The Bride in Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2 (2003, 2004), collectively with Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Sonny Chiba, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Gordon Liu, and Michael Parks; which brought her two additional Golden Globe Award nominations.

Films in the mid to late 1990s include A Month by the Lake (1995), with Vanessa Redgrave and Edward Fox; Beautiful Girls (1996), with Matt Dillon, Noah Emmerich, Lauren Holly, Timothy Hutton, Rosie O’Donnell, Martha Plimpton, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, and Mira Sorvino; Michael Lehmann’s The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996), with Janeane Garofalo, Ben Chaplin and Jamie Foxx; Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin (1998), with George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Gough, Pat Hingle, and Elle Macpherson; Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca (1997), with Ethan Hawke (whom she was married to from 1998 to 2005), Jude Law, Loren Dean, Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal, and Alan Arkin; Les Misérables (1998), with Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Claire Danes, Hans Matheson, Reine Brynolfsson, and Peter Vaughan; Jeremiah Chechik’s The Avengers (1998), with Ralph Fiennes, Sean Connery, Jim Broadbent, Fiona Shaw, and Eddie Izzard; and Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown (1999), with Anthony LaPaglia, Brian Markinson, Gretchen Mol, Samantha Morton, and Sean Penn.

Thurman won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for Mira Nair’s TV movie Hysterical Blindness (2002), with Gena Rowlands, Juliette Lewis and Ben Gazzara. Other films in the 2000s include Roland Joffé’s Vatel (2000), with Gérard Depardieu, Roth, Timothy Spall, Julian Glover, and Julian Sands; James Ivory’s The Golden Bowl (2000), with Kate Beckinsale, James Fox, Anjelica Huston, Nick Nolte, Jeremy Northam, and Madeleine Potter; Richard Linklater’s Tape (2001), with Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard; Chelsea Walls (2001), with Kris Kristofferson, Leonard, Tuesday Weld, Kevin Corrigan, Bianca Hunter, Vincent D’Onofrio, Natasha Richardson, and Rosario Dawson; and John Woo’s Paycheck (2004), with Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Paul Giamatti, Michael C. Hall, Joe Morton, and Colm Feore.

Films in the mid to late 2000s include Be Cool (1995), with Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, Andre Benjamin, Steven Tyler, Robert Pastorelli, Christina Milian, Keitel, Dwayne Johnson, and Danny DeVito; Prime (2005), with Meryl Streep and Bryan Greenberg; The Producers (2005), with Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Will Ferrell, Gary Beach, Roger Bart, and Jon Lovitz; Ivan Reitman’s My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), with Luke Wilson, Anna Faris, Izzard, Rainn Wilson, and Wanda Sykes; The Life Before Her Eyes (2007), with Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri, and Brett Cullen; The Accidental Husband (2008), with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Colin Firth, Isabella Rossellini, and Sam Shepard; and Motherhood (2009), with Minnie Driver and Anthony Edwards.

Films in the 2010s include Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), with Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Jake Abel, Dawson, Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Joe Pantoliano, Kevin McKidd, Sean Bean, Dylan Neal and Pierce Brosnan; Ceremony (2010), with Michael Angarano, Lee Pace, Rebecca Mader, and Reece Thompson; Bel Ami (2012), with Robert Pattinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci, and Colm Meaney; Playing for Keeps (2012), with Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Quaid, and Judy Greer; Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac (2013), with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Jean-Marc Barr, Willem Dafoe, and Connie Nielsen; Burnt (2015), with Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Omar Sy, Daniel Brühl, Matthew Rhys, Riccardo Scamarcio, Alicia Vikander, and Emma Thompson; The Con Is On (2018), with Roth, Alice Eve, Sofía Vergara, and Maggie Q; The House That Jack Built (2018), with Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl, Riley Keough, and Jeremy Davies; and Down a Dark Hall (2018), with AnnaSophia Robb, Victoria Moroles, Isabelle Fuhrman, Taylor Russell, Rosie Day, and Noah Silver.

Films in the 2020s include The War with Grandpa (2020), with De Niro, Oakes Fegley, Rob Riggle, Laura Marano, Cheech Marin, Jane Seymour, and Walken; Julia Hart’s Hollywood Stargirl (2022), with Grace VanderWaal, Elijah Richardson, Tyrel Jackson Williams, Judy Greer, and Judd Hirsch.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) – directed by Hayao Miyazaki – English dub
Kiss Daddy Goodbye (1987) – directed by Peter Ily Huemer
Johnny Be Good (1988) – directed by Bud S. Smith
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) – directed by Terry Gilliam
Dangerous Liaisons (1988) – directed by Stephen Frears
Where the Heart Is (1990) – directed by John Boorman
Henry & June (1990) – directed by Philip Kaufman
Robin Hood (1991) – directed by John Irvin
Dylan Thomas (1991) – directed by David Drury
Final Analysis (1992) – directed by Phil Joanou
Jennifer 8 (1992) – directed by Bruce Robinson
Mad Dog and Glory (1993) – directed by John McNaughton
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) – directed by Gus Van Sant
Pulp Fiction (1994)** – directed by Quentin Tarantino
A Month by the Lake (1995) – directed by John Irvin
Duke of Groove (1995) – directed by Griffin Dunne – short
Beautiful Girls (1996) – directed by Ted Demme
The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) – directed by Michael Lehmann
Batman & Robin (1997)* – directed by Joel Schumacher
Gattaca (1997) – directed by Andrew Niccol
Les Misérables (1998) – directed by Bille August
The Avengers (1998)* – directed by Jeremiah Chechik
Sweet and Lowdown (1999) – directed by Woody Allen
Vatel (2000) – directed by Roland Joffé
The Golden Bowl (2000) – directed by James Ivory
Tape (2001) – directed by Richard Linklater
Chelsea Walls (2001) – directed by Ethan Hawke
Hysterical Blindness (2002) – directed by Mira Nair – also executive producer – TV movie
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)* – directed by Quentin Tarantino – also co-character creator
Paycheck (2003) – directed by John Woo
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)* – directed by Quentin Tarantino – also co-character creator
Be Cool (2005) – directed by F. Gary Gray
Prime (2005) – directed by Ben Younger
The Naked Brothers Band (2005) – directed by Polly Draper – cameo as herself
The Producers (2005) – directed by Susan Stroman
My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006) – directed by Ivan Reitman
Mission Zero (2007) – directed by Kathryn Bigelow – short
The Life Before Her Eyes (2007) – directed by Vadim Perelman
The Accidental Husband (2008) – directed by Griffin Dunne – also producer
My Zinc Bed (2008) – directed by Anthony Page – TV movie
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) – directed by Kirk R. Thatcher – TV movie
Motherhood (2009) – directed by Katherine Dieckmann
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)* – directed by Chris Columbus
Ceremony (2010) – directed by Max Winkler
Bel Ami (2012) – directed by Declan Donnellan & Nick Ormerod
Playing for Keeps (2012) – directed by Gabriele Muccino
Movie 43 (2013) – directed by Steven Brill, Peter Farrelly, Will Graham, Steve Carr, Griffin Dunne, James Duffy, Jonathan van Tulleken, Elizabeth Banks, Patrik Forsberg, Brett Ratner, Rusty Cundieff, James Gunn, Bob Odenkirk, Steve Baker, & Damon Escott – anthology
Nymphomaniac (2013) – directed by Lars von Trier
Jump! (2014) – directed by Jessica Valentine – short
The Gift (2014) – directed by Ivan Petukhov – short
The Mundane Goddess (2014) – directed by Henco J. – short
Burnt (2015) – directed by John Wells
The Con Is On (2018) – directed by James Oakley (as James Haslam)
The House That Jack Built (2018) – directed by Lars von Trier
Down a Dark Hall (2018) – directed by Rodrigo Cortés
The War with Grandpa (2020) – directed by Tim Hill
Hollywood Stargirl (2022) – directed by Julia Hart
The Old Guard (202-) – directed by Victoria Mahoney
The Kill Room (202-) – directed by Nicol Paone

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