People Magazine
UMA THURMAN SPEAKS WITH PEOPLE ABOUT LES MISERABLES AND OTHER THINGS.
In her 10-year film career Uma Thurman has explored a variety of female archetypes: from naive ingenue in Dangerous Liaisons to camp seductress in Batman & Robin to mobster's moll in Pulp Fiction (for which she earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination). Now, as Fantine in Les Miserables, she plays another iconic role -- a poverty-stricken working class woman forced into prostitution to support her beloved daughter. Dying from consumption, Fantine entrusts the care of her child Cosette to Valjean, the man who nursed her through her illness and with whom she shares a tender, unspoken bond.
At 28, Thurman is embarking on an entirely new role: after working steadily since her late teens, she is now pregnant with her first child (due in July), and quietly married the baby's father, actor Ethan Hawke, 27, in an intimate ceremony on May 1st in New York City. Thurman made it clear that, for the foreseeable future, her creative urges will be focused on motherhood, rather than Hollywood.
In Les Miserables Fantine has such a traumatic time. Why were you interested in this role?
Well, it's a great part. And I've always wanted to work with Bille August -- I've been sort of after him for a long time in my mind as one of the directors that I thought was really artistic and special. I try to work with those kind of people, try to get them to hire me. He offered me this part and I felt that I had some insight into it. I felt that [she] was a beautiful character, a beautiful person who had a legitimate, poignant, traumatic historical experience.
And how did you find working with Bille?
I think he's a great director. I think he's a very good director for me. We had a short working time together because [Fantine] had to die. But I really felt as it went on that we had some sort of understanding. I think he looks for the truth in performing. He's not easily satisfied. He's not the most communicative person, which is usually the sign of a good director, [one] that doesn't ever overspeak or overstep. They leave things alone but provoke what they're looking for.
Had you seen the musical?
No. I'm not a big musical fan, I have to admit. Although I love show tunes when I hear them. But I just never for some reason bring myself to going out and watching musicals. No one invites me.
What was it about Fantine that you related to?
She is in a way a very progressive character. This novel, when Victor Hugo wrote it, was one of the first big indictments of the societal treatment of women. What makes it interesting is she's not just a victim [who] accepts her fate and gets whacked around and feels miserable about it. There's something strong and stubborn in [her] character that probably brought trouble down on her. She doesn't really think that she was wrong for falling in love. She doesn't really think that her child [Cosette] is a worthless, filthy bastard. She thinks her child is beautiful and loves her and is somehow secretly proud of her. And so she doesn't fully buy into the whole party line that suppresses her. And it's that stubbornness and that independence of mind that I think brings down such hard punishments on her socially. There's a vanity and a pride to this woman. She doesn't see herself as worthless.
A main source of strength for her is her love for her child.
What was interesting about the character is that she has faith in love, she has responsibility, she has convictions. And they protect her, they shield her. She stays clean on some level, deep down. She accepts it all socially. But her love is pure. It's like a white light in the character.
The sexuality of other characters you've played has been very up front, except for Fantine.
I don't think so. I think Fantine's sexuality is as much an issue in her lifestyle as any character I've ever played, if not more so. Far more so.
She seems more exploited than active in her sexuality.
Well, what got her into trouble was being active in her sexuality. This pre-dates what you see in the movie, but if you read the novel what gets Fantine into trouble is that she falls in love. This guy who's not quite honest falls in love with a woman below his station who he won't marry and takes advantage of her willingness to be sexual with someone she's in love with. Which would be considered sane on the part of a young woman today.
You had some nude scenes early in your career. Other actresses say that it's not that they object to doing nudity, but that it's the way that it becomes this whole other thing -- fans will treat them with disrespect . . .
Particularly in this country. I started out sort of healthily indifferent and artistic about [nudity]. Certainly not interested in sex-ploitation movies -- even if they looked like blockbusters. [Laughs] But artistically I had to look towards what was the right thing. So it's a real struggle. It's appropriate if the spirit of the entire film is the right spirit, [not if] you're doing a movie where you think it would be artistically good to do a scene nude but you feel that it would be exploited by the studio in an unpleasant manner and sold so that some guy will go "Heh heh! Let's go! She's nude in this one!" [Laughing] Gross! Who wants to be a part of that?
I remember I was having this poignant moment, watching a Mel Gibson movie in some midtown theater and they started having a love scene. This was not even a hot steam thing, this was just your obligatory now-they-have-sex intro. And this row of guys right below me [shouted], "F*** her, Mel!" [Cracks up] I was truly flabbergasted. We all have these discussions about what's artistic and what's not, and here the bottom line is a bunch of goons in a theater screaming at the screen like at a football game. What do you do?
How do you feel about appearing nude after that kind of experience?
You get turned off. [You think], "Well it better be a real art movie. And it better have a real low budget." It's artistic justification that you have to feel. [In] this film there's a scene with the landlord which is suggestive. And I said to Bille, "I don't want to be coy and cheap about it." 'Cause just as much as that, I hate movies where you see someone who's supposed to be dying [or] has just been sexually assaulted and they're in a brand new pair of white panties and a really prissy little lacy bra. It's too coy and it becomes obnoxious. It becomes obviously about the actress, not about the piece. So there's always a balance -- that can't be found. [Laughs]
Do big stories like this, now that you're known as a name, get in the way of making small stories like The Truth About Cats and Dogs?
I'm so contrary that probably your just saying that will make me go find some [small stories]. I keep being compelled to do the opposite thing I did last time. Now I'm having a baby, so I'm not doing anything. I wish there was a whole salad bowl of opportunities that I could just flip through and always pick the best of the best. It's not really the truth. You're always reacting to something in your career, [though] from the outside it doesn't necessarily seem that way. So I don't think anything will keep me from making small movies if the movie industry can keep making small movies. Even the small independent movie companies don't want to make small movies. Forget about me, they want a big blockbuster star before they even go ahead.
Did you want to do The Avengers just because it would be a kick to do?
Yeah, I thought it would be a kick to do, and I'd never made a movie like that. Avengers is popcorn. It's squeaky clean. Kids can go. I have this kind of compulsive need to try out every genre and style of film that there is so that maybe at some point I can say I'm grown up and I can then decide what kind of career I want.
Are you doing anything special getting ready for the baby, going to an exercise class or anything like that?
No, I'm not doing much to preserve my vanity. [Laughs] I'm just gettin' fat, the good old-fashioned way.
Have you thought about a name for your child? Do you know the sex?
No, I don't know the sex, and I wouldn't publicize it if I did.
Will motherhood make a big difference in terms of your career? Are you going to go to work next fall?
I don't have anything planned, and I don't want to, so I can see what'll happen. Hopefully motherhood will change something. I won't continue to be just as selfish and obnoxious. [Laughs]
Are you planning on doing a natural childbirth, without drugs?
It's a wonderful thing if someone can do it [without drugs]. You never know.
So you'll take it as it comes.
(Laughs) Well, I don't have a choice. Unless you phone up and say, "Hi, can I have a C-section on Tuesday?" That I won't do.
-- DORRIE CROCKETT
