Uma Thurman explains why she stepped away from action films after Kill Bill and what drew her back to the genre for The Old Guard 2 alongside Charlize Theron.
More than two decades after slicing her way into cinematic history as The Bride in Kill Bill, Uma Thurman is stepping back into action — and this time, she’s playing the villain.
The 55-year-old actress made a rare late-night appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 17 to open up about why she took such a long hiatus from action films, and what finally pulled her back in: Netflix’s upcoming sequel, The Old Guard 2.
“I never really followed Kill Bill up with action because I didn’t kind of want to be in a whole bunch of ‘B’ action movies,” Uma Thurman told Jimmy Fallon. “When you do Kill Bill, you never stop hearing about it… So I did other stuff.”
That “other stuff” meant years away from sword fights and high-intensity stunt work. But when the opportunity came to join The Old Guard 2, playing opposite Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman saw it as a meaningful reentry into the genre — and one that wouldn’t diminish her legacy.
“It seemed different,” Uma Thurman said of the film. “Charlize was just so epic in [2020’s The Old Guard]. And so I thought, ‘Well, I could go do this for her… I’ll go support her and fight her and battle her out.’”
Uma Thurman was quick to heap praise on her co-star, calling Charlize Theron “phenomenal” and “incredible,” and describing the first film as a “unique kind of action movie” that had real “character and depth.”
In The Old Guard 2, Uma Thurman plays Discord, the villain to Charlize Theron’s immortal warrior Andy — a dynamic that Uma Thurman said was surprisingly fun. “It’s fun to be particularly funny bad guys,” she added.
Still, not everything came easily. Despite her action pedigree, Uma Thurman admitted she didn’t get the chance to train much for the role. “No, I came on to do it kind of at the end. So I had no training,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh yeah, a sword. I think I hold it like this.’”
Interestingly, it wasn’t the combat that gave her trouble on set — it was the eating scenes. “You have to do a lot of takes… you start to worry about choking because you don’t want to be chewing when you say that line,” she said, joking that a “good eating scene” is still on her bucket list.
As for whether The Old Guard could become a trilogy, Uma Thurman hinted at more to come. “There’s whispers,” she teased. “I think we’ll leave it to the fans.”
But don’t hold your breath for Kill Bill: Volume 3. During a 2022 interview, Uma Thurman revealed that although the sequel was once seriously considered, “it’s not immediately on the horizon.”
For now, fans can catch Uma Thurman’s long-awaited return to action when The Old Guard 2 premieres on Netflix July 2.
