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Uma Thurman has proven herself to be one of the
most versatile young actresses around, playing a wide variety of compelling
characters. The daughter of a psychologist and a college professor, Thurman
was raised in Amherst, Massachusetts and Woodstock, New York. She attended
a preparatory school in New England, where at fifteen she was discovered
by two New York agents. At sixteen she transferred to the Professional
Children's School in New York City to pursue an acting career.
Thurman first came forcefully to public attention
in 1988, when she segued from Johnny Be Good, opposite Anthony Michael
Hall, to an eye-catching cameo as Venus on the half shell in
Terry Gilliam's epic fantasy The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1998).
She went on to receive world-wide critical acclaim in her third movie,
for her portrayal
of a virginal 18th century convent girl, Cecile de Volanges,
coldly seduced by a ruthless John Malkovich in Stephen Frears' Dangerous
Liaisons.
Thurman's career has been defined from the beginning
by a bold but highly selective choice of roles and collaborators: no commercial
throwaways allowed. The following year she starred for adventurous director
Philip Kaufman in Henry & June (1990), playing the neurotic
and exotic bisexual spouse of archetypal bohemian novelist Henry Miller
(Fred Ward).
In Mad Dog and Glory,1993, she played
a barmaid who becomes an indentured servant to Robert De Niro
for saving Bill Murray's life. Her most eccentric movie to date is Gus
Van Sant's
film Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, 1994 based on the Tom Robbins
novel, in which she starred as Sissy Hankshaw, a big-thumbed,
bisexual hippie hitchhiker.
In 1996, Thurman received an Academy Award ® nomination
for Quentin Tarantino's critically lauded Pulp Fiction, in which
she played Mia Wallace, a sexy and comedic mobster's wife. Later that year,
she was seen in the period romance A Month by the Lake, with Vanessa
Redgrave, and the contemporary romance Beautiful Girls, directed
by Ted Demme. Thurman next appeared in The Truth About Cats And Dogs (1996), Batman & Robin (1997), Gattacca (1997), Les
Miserables (1998), and The Avengers (1998). In the spring
of 1999, she made her stage debut in an updated version of Moliere's The
Misanthrope at The Classic Stage Company in New York.
Her most recent films include Woody Allen's Sweet
And Lowdown, opposite Sean Penn and Samantha Morton; Vatel,
opposite Gerard Depardieu and Tim Roth; the Merchant/Ivory Henry James
adaptation The Golden Bowl, with Nick Nolte; and Tape with
Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard, for which she was nominated for
an Independent Spirit Award as Best Supporting Actress.
Thurman recently produced and acted in the HBO
film Hysterical Blindness, directed by Mira Nair, co-starring with
Juliette Lewis and Gena Rowlands. She won a 2003 Golden Globe
for Best Actress for her portrayal of Debby Miller in the film, and was
nominated
for a SAG Award. Her most recent feature release was John Woo's
futuristic thriller Paycheck (2003), with Ben Affleck and Aaron
Eckhart. Future projects include Be Cool (2004), F. Gary Grey's adaptation
of Elmore Leonard's
sequel to Get Shorty, with John Travolta returning as Chili
Palmer, and Hugh Wilson's romantic comedy, Accidental Husband.
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