Entertainment Weekly – June 27, 1997-July 4, 1997

Last Update:

The It Girl

By Assorted Writers

Age: 27
Why her? Forget that she’s one half of the most notorious one-liner in Oscar history. The willowy, six-foot tall, sleepy-eyed actress is the unrivaled queen of Hollywood’s ethereal realm. Named after a sexy Hindu goddess, Thurman has a dreamy, Venus-like look that can be played as wistfully romantic (see: Beautiful Girls, Dangerous Liaisons, Henry & June), stylishly aloof (à la the cocaine-sniffing moll in Pulp Fiction), brassy (as the vixenish Poison Ivy in this month’s Batman & Robin), or just plain spaced-out (check out Even Cowgirls Get the Blues or, better yet, the upcoming futuristic drama Gattaca).
How she does it: “Decomposition and recomposition,” says Thurman, sounding more like her father, Robert, who teaches Indo-Tibetan Buddhism at Columbia University (Uma’s mom, Nena, is a model-turned-psychologist who was once married to LSD guru Timothy Leary). Translation: “When I read a script, I pull the character apart. `Why is the character saying this? What would she look like when she’s angry?’ Then maybe I’ll watch a movie. I watched some Mae West to get ready for Batman & Robin-before coming back to try to make the character my own.”
Creative crutch: Pilates, a vigorous workout of stretching and the strengthening moves. “On a good week when I’m not busy,” she says, “I’ll try to do it three or four times.” She also smokes. A lot.
What’s next: In Les Misérables, shooting in Prague, she plays the unemployed Fantine, a street urchin driven to prostitution to support her child. She’s already wrapped production as the star-trooping Irene opposite boyfriend Ethan Hawke in this fall’s Gattaca. And she’s currently fine-tuning the part of Emma Peel for a film version of the super-sleek ’60s series The Avengers.