UMA THURMAN

She was the Hollywood bombshell who became one of the #MeToo movement’s most vocal victims. On the eve of her 50th birthday, Uma Thurman’s legacy extends far beyond the screen. By Michelle Davies

- Michelle Davies

It was 1980 and, despite being only 10 years old, Uma Thurman was anxious about the way she looked. At school, she was bullied about her height, large feet and hands, and wide-set eyes. “I was sure that my looks were hideous,” Thurman later said. “I was a little too tall, odd, funny looking.” Yet a mere eight years later she was being feted as one of Hollywood’s most beautiful new stars after her breakthrough role in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Being considered attractive and talented was quite the validation for a young woman shunned by her classmates.

Thurman is now one of the most recognised faces in the industry, shimmying her way to icon status in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic Pulp Fiction in 1994. Her performance as Mia Wallace earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and a lifelong role as Tarantino’s muse.

But there was also a dark side to her dazzling cinematic pairing with Tarantino – being allegedly sexually assaulted by his producer and collaborator, Harvey Weinstein. Now, as Weinstein stands trial on rape charges (at the time of printing), Thurman considers herself “extremely fortunate” to have found the strength to expose him. “[It’s] having the courage to just try to move forward, try to take another step, and try not to let things overcome me – to be brave,” she said last year.