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  Uma Thurman: Star Producer
Cool beauty Uma Thurman has gone from cult heroine to the star producer of a romantic comedy. She explains why she's still searching for the fairy tale.
”It's funny,” beams Uma Thurman, “but in Hollywood, you don't hear the word `bitch' as much as you used to. Up until recently, if ever a woman was doing well or achieving something, that term was liberally applied. Women were called all sorts of names.” Sitting in the comfortable confines of London's Dorchester hotel, looking remarkably fresh in her earth-coloured trousers and top, and acting especially chirpy for someone who stepped off a transatlantic flight just four hours earlier, Thurman is musing on Hollywood's perception of female writers and directors. A trio of women screenwriters crafted her latest movie, The Accidental Husband.
“I think female writers and directors have been getting more work in recent years,” she continues, her slender fingers fiddling with the fine blonde hair scraped back from her face. “The slow move towards Hollywood accepting women in the employer and leadership positions is getting better. I think we're all growing up more and more. There is some positive movement, and that makes me happy.”
An undoubtedly happy Thurman - she giggles throughout the interview - has hopped into the realm of leadership herself. She is credited as a producer on her new film, buying the rights to the story in early 2001 and spending the succeeding years working with writers, financiers and her first-choice director, her long-standing friend Griffin Dunne, who is perhaps best known for his work as an actor, starring in John Landis's An American Werewolf in London and Martin Scorsese's After Hours before graduating to the director's chair.
The film is her second outing as a producer, following 2002's HBO feature Hysterical Blindness, and whereas the latter is a rather gritty black comedy, her latest is a slick romantic comedy, starring the genre mainstay Colin Firth as Thurman's intended fiancé. He is a rather stiff publisher who represents a “safe bet” for her character, Emma Lloyd, a radio presenter who encourages her listeners to plump for the more anodyne choice in their relationships, before suddenly pursuing the opposite option herself. Reflecting a world where marriage licences could, or at least should, be printed on an Etch a Sketch, the film allows Thurman to display her comedy chops, blending the slapstick with the poignant.
“I bought the rights and developed the story because nobody at the time was letting me do comedy,” explains the 37-year-old New Yorker, a hint of frustration creeping into her otherwise sanguine tone as she recalls the earlier stages of her career.
“So I found this script, which was a good high-concept romantic comedy - something Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts would do, but which I wouldn't even get a meeting to do. I wanted to bust into another genre, and this seemed the only way. But during the film's long journey, coming to life, dying and coming to life again about three times, I actually broke into comedy on my own elsewhere, with things like Prime and My Super Ex-Girlfriend. But back then, it was forbidden fruit. I was all serious drama and corsets.”
Indeed, before Quentin Tarantino swept her to superstardom with Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill: Vols 1 and 2, Thurman had made her name with films such as The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Dangerous Liaisons and Henry & June. Now, with The Accidental Husband coming hot on the heels of Prime and My Super Ex, it might look as though she has settled into fluffier roles. A quick glance at her forthcoming films, however, dispels that notion.
“I don't feel obsessed any longer with doing what I've been told I can't do,” she smiles, placing the emphasis on the word “obsessed”, which suggests that the thought still lingers in her lively mind. “I think I should get to cruise and celebrate how much I love the work. Whenever I can find a piece of new writing that articulates what we're going through now, that's my favourite. That could be funny, scary, or whatever, but I'm looking for good contemporary writing. I have no immediate plans to produce again - it's challenging and nobody helps me with it; I guess it's more of a hobby - but I do want to work with really good writers. UMAfruit. In April, Life Before Her Eyes will open in the States and, judging by its reception at last year's Toronto Film Festival, it should further enhance Thurman's reputation.
Directed by Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog), the film is a powerful and moving drama. “It's about the phenomenon of teenage massacre in America,” notes Thurman, the broad smile slipping temporarily from her elfin face. “But it's told from a very private point of view, that of a survivor. It deals with what was going on in this American girl's life when she was 17 - played by Evan Rachel Wood - and how that's remembered and reexperienced when she's an adult woman in her thirties, played by me. After that, I've got My Zinc Bed, which is adapted from the David Hare play. I thought the writing was amazing.”
Hare's play caused quite a stir when it was staged at the Royal Court in London in 2000, exploring the effects of alcoholism upon three characters. “It looks at their relationships to their addictions, pain management, romance, anxieties and self-definition,” says Thurman. “It's not too fluffy. And it's very current. I think people are looking at these issues in themselves and in others.” She stops and laughs. “Especially others. I think the finger-pointing is out of control, as usual.” Unlike many of her Alist peers, Thurman's life has invited very little finger-pointing. It has certainly been clear of addiction, and the emotional strife she has suffered has come courtesy of her failed relationships.
Her first marriage, to Gary Oldman, lasted just two years, ending in 1992, while her second, to Ethan Hawke, began to crumble in 2003 when he allegedly began an affair with a model, Jen Perzow. The pair, who have two children, Maya, nine, and Levon, six, divorced in July the following year. Thurman then dated the hip hotelier André Balazs, and she is currently seeing the Swiss millionaire Arpad Busson, the father of Elle Macpherson's children.
Busson lives in London. That could explain Thurman's current state of giddy excitement, which remains undimmed in spite of our lengthy interview coming in the wake of a seriously delayed flight. “I do get to spend more time here in London, which is wonderful,” she begins. “What do I like about London?” A smile flashes across her face. “The residents.” Another bout of giggling ensues. “No, seriously, I've spent a lot of time in London in my life - I've made at least five films here - and I would like to live here. Sadly, though, I'm not free to move to and fro, because of my children, their schooling, and also the fact that they have a father who's a resident of New York. Moving is not my privilege.”
Dating a millionaire, however, most certainly is. Thurman concedes that her own financial security has, in fact, negated some of the concerns she may have had as a single mother. “My self-sufficiency eliminates a large number of practical considerations that I would have to deal with if things were different,” she admits. “Honestly, though, I do think being single as an adult is more complicated than ever. For teenagers, they can go out to parties. And while I'm sure they're all miserable, as we all were, for adults, finding civilised ways of encountering people who are single is challenging.
“I know intelligent, cool, interesting women, with real diplomas, who have to use dating services. That brought me to my knees. Actually, it was one of the reasons I wanted to make this romantic comedy, because the whole conversation about dating and finding love is the most touching thing about all of us - our love of love.”
During her stint in singledom last year, she admitted that men rarely chatted her up. Now, rumour has it that her current beau is desperate for her hand in marriage. Thurman just proffers a quiet smile. “I think we have to keep subscribing to the fairy tale until we find it,” she offers. “I'm a true believer. I've been told, by a very good source, that I'm a hopeless romantic. I always thought I was very cynical, because I have quite a biting sense of humour, but a real professional has diagnosed me as the furthest thing from it. “I'm honestly happier now than at any other time in my life, and I think that optimism is what's given me longevity in my career. I think we should search for the fairy-tale ending. Why not?” She giggles once more. “Let's be real about how unreal we all are.”
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