Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUponThrilling
RD: Are you surprised that you stuck with your plan to become an actress?Thurman: It is a surprise. I remember being, like, 10, and my mother asking me what I wanted to do. When I said I want to be an actress, she said, "Everybody does. Say something else. You've been watching too much TV." Today, it's sort of disturbing when a teenager says she wants to be an actress. It is such an unlikely thing to be able to do -- not because you can't be good at it, but just because of what it takes to survive: luck, talent, holding your head in a certain way, endurance. You have to be able to take insults really well. And how obnoxious will you become if you are treated nicely and receive flattery?
RD: What's it like being a single mother, given your career?
Thurman: I don't get to stay home sick. My job is very unforgiving in that regard. And I haven't entirely figured out how to deal with it. I've avoided conflict by limiting my options. And I'm really grateful that I found things I could do that were here in New York.
RD: Tell us about your role in My Super Ex-Girlfriend.
Thurman: I play a woman who found a meteor as a child and gained superpowers. But all she wants to do is find a nice guy and settle down. Unfortunately, her own neuroses are so immense that she suffocates anyone who comes close to her -- men run for the hills. Then she feels the loss and rejection that anybody naturally feels, but in her case she expresses it with out-of-control rage. Super-rage.
RD: Was it a fun role to play?
Thurman: It was really fun to play a character who actually vents. So many women don't vent. We are trained to be gracious and hold our tongues. But this character flips out and has full-on tantrums. Think of a humiliating experience you've had, when all you did was sit there quietly and suck it up. For years, every time you'd think of it, you'd flinch. You ask, Why didn't I just go bananas and take a baseball bat and smash that person over the head?
RD: You've taken on some very physical roles. On the set of The Producers, I saw you slide across this desk...
Thurman: Over and over. One day I hit my hip on the desk so hard I fell to the ground. Once you hurt yourself, you begin to kind of preemptively prepare. Your judgment starts to go wild because your body's afraid.
RD: Just like in life.
Thurman: Right. But we came back another day, and I did one perfect move. And that's in the movie.
RD: In one very memorable scene in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, you were buried alive.
Thurman: That was awful. It went on for weeks. Many different sets were built to create different moments of it. Part of it was shot at night on location. Part of it was shot in studio.
RD: How do you psych yourself up for that kind of thing?
Thurman: The purest relationship I have ever had, aside from with my children, is with my work. Whatever you give it, it gives you back double. That's an unusual kind of relationship. It's thrilling to act. It's thrilling to reach for things and risk humiliation. It's taken me a long time to learn to accept the risks and just be willing to try it over and over again.
RD: You once said you don't take risks, that risks take you.
Thurman: Life sweeps you up. Some people resist a lot. I probably haven't resisted very much.
RD: You've been at this for 20 years. Do you ever get tired of it?
Thurman: I've always approached work as a worker. Whatever it takes -- endurance, discipline, practice, repetition, courage, working through it -- I just have always been willing to pull myself up and try again. I've never taken success for granted.
RD: That's a great outlook.
Thurman: Well, at the same time, the price you pay for that attitude is that you don't get to enjoy the highs. There will be some incredibly spectacular moment and you wish to God you could just celebrate it. But you can't, because some other thing has just ground you right down to the core.
RD: You have said, "You play, you pay," regarding celebrities and the press. So if you're famous, you're fair game?
Thurman: I think that you are game. There are many incredible privileges that go with being famous. Being beat up by the media is nothing compared to, say, being beat up by your union if you're a coal miner.
RD: What kinds of things would you do if you had a lot of spare time?
Thurman: I love, love, love to travel, to explore the world, but I never can. I'd like to see more theater, go to more shows. I'd try to get my French back. My list is literally as long as my leg.
RD: Which is very, very long.
Thurman: Uh-huh. And it's written in small print.
Advertisement 
Your Comments
See all
...