Uma Thurman’s “secret” favourite actor: “You won’t probably believe it”
Few actors embody that mysterious star quality quite like Uma Thurman. Her captivating screen presence has carried many mediocre movies and elevated actually good ones to that next level.
Across her storied career, Thurman has worked with all of the great co-stars you could dream of as an actor. Her collaborations with Quentin Tarantino have brought her into contact with John Travolta, Lucy Liu, David Carradine, and more. She even recently teamed up with Charlize Theron on The Old Guard 2, which personally made her extremely happy. Alas, one of her all-time heroes retired from the movie business before Thurman had even been born.
In an interview with TV Today, Thurman revealed certain details about what she looks for in a film. Despite being mostly associated with the action genre, the star has an affinity for another, far less violent type of movie.
“As a child I watched a lot of musicals,” she said. “One of my absolute favorites was – you won’t probably believe it – Doris Day. She had this certain elegance and she was also a sunshine (person).”
She doubled down on this opinion in a second interview with Gulf News, referring to her role in the musical film The Producers as a dream come true. “I am a secret Doris Day fan,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to sing and dance.”
Beginning her career as a big band singer, Day achieved success in both music and film almost simultaneously. As her songs ‘Secret Love’ and ‘Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)’ soared up the charts, audiences were packing in to watch her in Calamity Jane, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and (Thurman’s personal favourite) Pillow Talk.
Considering she’s had such a monumental impact on pop culture, her time in the spotlight was criminally short. Day didn’t appear in a feature film after 1968. Though she would have a successful television career in the years immediately following, she eventually faded from stardom entirely, living out her long life in the shade.
As mentioned earlier, Thurman hasn’t gotten many chances to indulge her passion for musicals. The main example would be The Producers, a 2005 film adaptation of Mel Brooks’ infamous stage musical, which in turn was based on a much older movie. The tall, striking blonde is perfectly cast as Ulla (I’m not typing her full name), a beautiful aspiring actress who joins Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane) and Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick) in their quest to exploit Broadway and make money off of a major flop. The film didn’t score that well among critics, nor did it even turn a profit, but at least Thurman was having a good time.
You might not immediately draw a connection between these two megastars, but they share more similarities than you might think. Both were among the most desirable female stars of their era and both subverted expectations of what women were capable of at the time. Day never did a full-blown action movie, but she was certainly no slouch. She’d often fling herself about on set, giving nothing short of 100% during various musical numbers. Now all Thurman has to do is get really into rescuing animals, and they’ll basically be the same person.
