The Star-Ledger – April 10, 2008

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A sense of Uma

By Stephen Whitty
Source: The Star-Ledger

I got the chance to sit down with Uma Thurman recently to talk about her new film, “Life Before Her Eyes” — opening April 18 — and we were both a little shocked.

I was surprised, at being reminded at just how long she’s been making movies, and she was surprised, as she looked back over her career.

“I’m celebrating my 21st anniversary in this business — happily the 20th passed without anyone noticing – and I have to say it’s changed a lot since I started,” she said.

In retrospect, she says, she’s glad she started in 1987, part of an “interstitial generation” that included slightly older actresses like Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman.

“I think I was very fortunate to start acting after the Brat Pack, and before this other trend of new actors,” she said. “We worshipped people like Robert De Niro and Warren Beatty who didn’t really do press. It’s a totally different world now, it’s the post-Harvey-Weinstein world, where if you don’t support your films you’re out of business. It’s definitely different from when I’ve started out.”

So very different, Thurman confessed, that by now “I’m 37, and I think I’m a dinosaur.”

“I pick up Us or People and I don’t know who half these people are.” she said. “Do they sing, do they act, did they get killed in a reality show? Who are these people and why do I care? Because I don’t think I do!… Celebrity has become a kind of thing of its own. It’s not founded on work anymore, it’s its own commodity, achieved by outrageous behavior, or being a shopper – you can actually become famous now just for shopping. Or doing something dreadful and hoping that someone will put it on the internet, so you can file a mock lawsuit. I don’t understand it.”

For more of what Thurman does think she finally understands – including the woes of relationships, the challenges of motherhood and why actors are like horses – look for this Sunday’s column, on line and in print.