Hollywood star Uma Thurman can boast a brilliant career studded with prestigious appearances. Starting to tread the boards at a very young age, she took part in films that quickly became symbols of pop culture, such as “Pulp Fiction” - for which she received an Oscar nomination - and the two chapters of “Kill Bill”, directed by Quentin Tarantino. In recent years, the actress has chosen to focus more on auteur cinema, participating, for example, in the controversial “Nymphomaniac” and “The House That Jack Built” by Danish director Lars Von Trier. Another noteworthy contribution is her role in the latest film by maestro Paul Schrader, “Oh Canada - The Betrayal”, presented last year.

More than twenty years after the release of “Kill Bill - Volume 2”, Thurman seemed to have definitively abandoned action cinema to orient herself towards completely different cinematic experiences. With great surprise, last May, after the release of the official trailer, it was announced that she was involved in “The Old Guard 2”, the sequel to the comic book film with Charlize Theron released on Netflix in 2020.

As you can see from the video, the return of Andy - the main character played by Theron - will be marked by the loss of her immortal powers, forcing her to face a series of clashes full of shootings to counter a new, mysterious character played by Thurman. Expected on the streaming service on July 2, “The Old Guard” will also see the return of Kiandra "KiKi" Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Veronica Ngo, Henry Golding, Uma Thurman and Kamil Nozynski.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Thurman finally revealed the reasons why she has chosen, until now, to turn down roles in other action films. When asked about it, she said: "I didn't want to find myself doing B-grade action films. When you do a film like Kill Bill, the comparison is inevitable and constant. I thought it would be better to step away and pursue other roles."

After seeing Charlize Theron’s performance in “The Old Guard,” the actress reconsidered her stance: “Charlize was so epic in the first film. I thought, if there was one film that I could put myself back in, it was this. It wasn’t just about fighting for two hours, it was about contributing to something that was really pushing the genre forward.”

However, the decision, taken a little late, did not allow her to train as she would have liked: "I arrived on set late, without preparation. When they gave me a sword, I thought: okay, it's still held like this, right?". But the trust placed in an enthusiastic and competent crew - she said - made up for the gaps in preparation.

Another curiosity that emerged during the chat with Fallon concerns the strong anxiety she feels every time she has to shoot a scene in which she eats, to the point that any action scene, in comparison, seems like a walk in the park. In particular, regarding the difficulty of chewing and speaking at the same time in front of the camera, she explained: “Did you know that eating in front of strangers is one of the questions in the DSM? Do you know what the DSM is? It's that test that psychiatrists use to identify your neuroses”

After specifying that she had passed the questionnaire, she continued: "First of all, you have to do so many takes. Then you can't even choose what to eat, and on top of that you also have to talk, swallow... and you start to fear choking, because you don't want to be caught chewing just when your line comes in."

Taking the opportunity to poke fun at his colleague Brad Pitt, who is known for devouring industrial quantities of food on set, he added: “He eats in every scene. An apple, an onion... he doesn't care what, he's always munching on something”. Admitting, therefore, with great humility, what his professional difficulties are, he concluded: “A good scene in which I eat should be on the list of things I haven't nailed yet. It's like bathing in the nude, one of those things you know you haven't done yet”.

John Scanu

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