Uma Karuna Thurman

• 2003–present
In 2003 Thurman co-starred in John Woo's Paycheck, which was only moderately successful with critics and at the box office.
It would be Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill which relaunched her career. She played assassin Beatrix Kiddo, out for revenge against her former lover. Tarantino wrote the part specifically for her. He cited Thurman as his muse while writing the film, and gave her joint credit for the character, whom the two conceived on the set of Pulp Fiction from the sole image of a bride covered in blood. Production was delayed for several months after Thurman became pregnant, as Tarantino refused to recast the part. The film took nine months to shoot, and was filmed in five different countries. The role was also her most demanding, and she spent three months training in martial arts, swordsmanship, and Japanese. Originally designed to be one film, Kill Bill was ultimately released in two parts and would become a cult classic and scored highly with critics. Thurman was nominated for a Golden Globe for both entries, plus three MTV Movie Awards for Best Female Performance and two for Best Fight. Rolling Stone likened her to "an avenging angel out of a 1940s Hollywood melodrama".
The inspirations for The Bride were several B-movie action heroines. Thurman's main inspiration for the role was the title character of Coffy (played by Pam Grier) and the character of Gloria Swenson from Gloria (played by Gena Rowlands). She said that the two characters are "two of the only women I've ever seen be truly women while holding a weapon". Coffy was screened for Thurman by Tarantino prior to beginning production on the film, to help her model the character.