Uma Thurman was on top of the action world after starring in Quentin Tarantino’sKill Billmovies, but the actress said she chose to reject most action roles after that for over two decades. Thurman finally joined the newaction movie on Netflix,The Old Guard 2,and she explained in a recent interview why these roles have been so rare for her sinceshe enjoyed herKill Billsuccessso many years ago.
Thurman appeared onThe Tonight Show Featuring Jimmy Fallonand talked about her new movie role and why shedidn’t want to take on action roles afterKill Bill.After the Tarantino movie, she had a few action-based films, withMy Super Ex-Girlfriendin 2006 andPercy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thiefin 2010, but neither of those required theintensive fight scenes of something like The Bride inKill Bill.According to Thurman, that was by design:
“I never really followedKill Billup with action because I didn’t kind of want to be in a whole bunch of ‘B’ action movies. When you doKill Bill, you never stop hearing about, you know, it’s like, ‘Oh, got to be very careful about what I do next.’ So I did other stuff.”
This led to her finally deciding on a real action movie in 2025 with The Old Guard 2. Thurman said that Charlize Theron caused her to decide to return to action movies 21 years afterKill Bill: Volume 2.
“Charlize was just so epic in [2020’sThe Old Guard]. And so I thought, ‘Well, I could go do this for her in that. Where she’s kind of taking the genre there. I’ll go support her and fight her and battle her out.'”
What This Means For Uma Thurman’s Career
Uma Thurman Mostly Disappeared Into Smaller Roles
Most fans expected to see Uma Thurman in a ton of action movies after her performance inKill Bill.However,Thurman wanted to do something differentin her career and had serious doubts about accepting action roles after those two Quentin Tarantino films. Thurman is right in assuming thatmost action movies made are B-grade films,and she didn’t want anything to do with that. Thurman wanted to appear in movies that allowed her to stretch her acting muscles and not just take money to do quick action films.
What this meant was very little work over the next 20 years. However, that seems okay withThurman, who preferred to work with filmmakers like Lars von Trierand on television shows likeChambersandSuspicion.It also allowed her to work on the stage, as she starred inThe Parisian Womanon Broadway from 2017 to 2018, proving she was up for serious dramatic roles as much as she was for any action performance.
Our Take On Uma Thurman Rejecting More Action Movies After Kill Bill
Uma Thurman Wanted To Protect Her Reputation
Uma Thurman looked like the next big thing in action movies, but that never happened. While that disappointed fans, Thurman did what was best for her career, family, and mental well-being. She didn’t want to get pigeonholed as an action movie actress, allowing her to experiment and find her place in Hollywood. It also allowedKill Billfans to get excited when she announced her return to action movies, which should makeThe Old Guard 2a can’t-miss return to form for Uma Thurman.
