Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films. Following her appearances on the December 1985 and May 1986 covers of British Vogue, Thurman starred in Dangerous Liaisons. She rose to international prominence with her performance as Mia Wallace in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award, the BAFTA Award, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Often hailed as Tarantino's muse, she reunited with the director to play the main role in ' and ', which brought her two additional Golden Globe Award nominations.
Established as a leading Hollywood actress, her other notable films include Henry & June, The Truth About Cats & Dogs, Batman & Robin, Gattaca, Les Misérables, The Producers, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac and The House That Jack Built. In 2011, Thurman was a member of the jury for the main competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, and in 2017, she was named president of the 70th edition's "Un Certain Regard" jury. Thurman made her Broadway debut in The Parisian Woman.
For her performance in the made-for-HBO film Hysterical Blindness, Thurman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Film, and for her five-episode role in the NBC musical series Smash, she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Thurman has starred in the miniseries The Slap and the series Imposters.
Early life
Thurman was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father, Robert Thurman, is a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies and an author, who lived as an ordained Buddhist monk for three years. Her mother, Nena von Schlebrügge, a high-fashion model, was born in Mexico City to a German nobleman and a Swedish model; Nena was discovered in Stockholm, and moved to New York City at the age of 17 to join the Ford Modeling Agency.Thurman received a Buddhist upbringing, and spent altogether around two years in the Indo-Himalayan town of Almora. She grew up mostly in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she went to Amherst Regional Junior High School, then moved to Woodstock, New York. She has three brothers, Ganden, Dechen Karl, and Mipam, and a half-sister named Taya, from her father's previous marriage. Thurman's first cousin once removed is Swedish football player Max von Schlebrügge.
She is described as having been an awkward and introverted girl who was teased for her appearance and unusual name. When Thurman was 10 years old, a friend's mother suggested a nose job. As a child, she suffered bouts of body dysmorphic disorder. She attended Amherst Public Schools. In the eighth grade, she discovered her love for acting. Talent scouts noticed her performance as Abigail in a production of The Crucible and offered her the chance to act professionally. Thurman attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, a preparatory school in Massachusetts, before dropping out to pursue a career in acting.
Career
Modeling and first film roles (1985–1989)
Thurman began her career as a fashion model at age 15, and signed with the agency Click Models. Her early modeling credits included Glamour and the December 1985 and May 1986 covers of British Vogue. She made the transition to acting with her film debut, the teen thriller Kiss Daddy Goodnight, which was released in 1987. Thurman was subsequently cast in three 1988 films — Johnny Be Good, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and most notably, Dangerous Liaisons. In the comedy Johnny Be Good, she played the girlfriend of a top high school quarterback prospect, and in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, she made a brief appearance as the goddess Venus; during her entrance she briefly appears nude, in an homage to Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. In the Oscar-winning drama Dangerous Liaisons, co-starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich, Thurman took on the role of a naive young woman seduced by a manipulative man. The picture was an arthouse success, and garnered Thurman recognition from critics and audiences; film critic Roger Ebert found her to be "well cast" in her "tricky" key role. At the time, insecure about her appearance, she spent roughly a year in London, during which she often wore loose, baggy clothing. Malkovich said of her, "There is nothing twitchy teenager-ish about her, I haven't met anyone like her at that age. Her intelligence and poise stand out. But there's something else. She's more than a little haunted."Early prominence and ''Pulp Fiction'' (1990–1995)
In 1990, Thurman appeared with Fred Ward and Maria de Medeiros in Henry & June, a sexually provocative drama about the relationship and affairs between writer Henry Miller and his wife June Miller in 1931 Paris. This film was the first to receive an NC-17 rating and partly because many American newspapers refused to advertise films with the new rating, it did not get wide release in the United States. However, it won Thurman good notices; The New York Times wrote: "Thurman, as the Brooklyn-accented June, takes a larger-than-life character and makes her even bigger, though the performance is often as curious as it is commanding." After playing Maid Marian in the 1991 British adventure film Robin Hood, Thurman began filming Dylan Thomas, a biopic on Welsh poet Dylan Thomas starring her then-husband Gary Oldman with herself as Caitlin Thomas, however the project was shut down shortly after filming began. Thurman went on to star as the patient of a San Francisco psychiatrist in the neo-noir drama Final Analysis, opposite Richard Gere and Kim Basinger, and as a blind woman romantically involved with a former policeman in the thriller Jennifer 8, with Andy García.Thurman portrayed a young woman with unusually big thumbs in Gus Van Sant's 1993 adaptation of Tom Robbins' novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. The film was a critical and commercial failure, eventually earning Thurman a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actress. The Washington Post described her acting as shallow and remarked: "Thurman's strangely passive characterization doesn't go much deeper than drawling and flexing her prosthetic thumbs". Also in 1993, she starred as a waitress opposite Robert De Niro and Bill Murray in the drama Mad Dog and Glory and auditioned for Stanley Kubrick while he was casting for his eventually unrealized adaptation of the novel Wartime Lies.
in September 1994
In Quentin Tarantino's neo-noir black comedy Pulp Fiction, Thurman portrayed Mia Wallace, the wife of a Los Angeles mobster. Several actresses were considered for the role, but Tarantino wanted Thurman after their first meeting. The film grossed US$213.9 million worldwide and received widespread acclaim, appearing on many critics' lists of the greatest films ever made. She dominated most of the movie's promotional material; Mia is considered one of the most iconic female film characters of the 1990s. The Washington Post asserted that Thurman was "serenely unrecognizable in a black wig, is marvelous as a zoned-out gangster's girlfriend". For her performance, Thurman was nominated for the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and launched into the celebrity A-list. She took little advantage of her new-found fame by choosing not to do any big-budget films for the next three years. During an interview with Time magazine in 2003, Tarantino, who considers Thurman his muse, remarked that she was "up there with Garbo and Dietrich in goddess territory".
Established career and hiatus (1996–2001)
Thurman's next films, the romantic dramedy Beautiful Girls, in which she played a fairly wise love interest, and the comedy The Truth About Cats & Dogs, in which she starred as a ditzy blonde model, were modest commercial successes amid a positive critical response upon their theatrical releases in 1996. In 1997, she starred opposite Ethan Hawke in Gattaca, a science fiction film set in a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic manipulation. The film received critical praise and became successful on the home video market, despite lackluster box office receipts. The Los Angeles Times, however, wrote that Thurman was "as emotionally uninvolved as ever".Her next film role was that of supervillain Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin. Budgeted at over US$125 million, the film grossed a modest US$238 million internationally and is often considered one of the worst films of all time. Thurman's performance, however, was largely highlighted upon the film's premiere; the Houston Chronicle remarked that "Thurman sometimes seems to be doing Mae West by way of Jessica Rabbit", and a similar comparison was made by The New York Times: "ike Mae West, she mixes true femininity with the winking womanliness of a drag queen". She obtained a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Sci-fi Actress and was also nominated for Favourite Movie Actress at the Kids' Choice Awards. In 1998, she starred as a British secret agent in The Avengers, another financial and critical flop; CNN described her as "so distanced you feel like you're watching her through the wrong end of a telescope".
Thurman took on the role of Fantine in Les Misérables, the 1998 film version of Victor Hugo's novel of the same name, directed by Bille August. The film was considered an "intelligent, handsomely crafted adaptation" of the classic novel, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and on his review of the film, Roger Ebert expressed that "Thurman's performance is the best element" of the story. In 1999, she performed in theatre in an update of Molière's The Misanthrope at the Classic Stage Company, and portrayed a socialite in Woody Allen's romantic dramedy Sweet and Lowdown, opposite Sean Penn. Thurman was in a hiatus from acting at the time as she had her daughter in 1998, doing only a few small, low-budget projects after giving birth; she eventually turned down the role of Éowyn in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which she considers "one of the worst decisions ever made".
Thurman headlined the period drama The Golden Bowl, based on the 1904 novel of the same name by Henry James. In November 2000, she narrated the John Moran opera Book of the Dead at The Public Theater. The historical drama Vatel saw Thurman play Anne de Montausier, the love interest of 17th-century French chef François Vatel, and in Richard Linklater's real-time drama Tape, she starred as the former girlfriend of a drug dealer and volunteer firefighter. She was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her part in Tape. Hawke directed her in Chelsea Walls, a drama revolving a number of artists as they spend a single day in New York's famed bohemian home Chelsea Hotel.
Renewed success with ''Kill Bill'' (2002–2005)
Thurman would win a Golden Globe for her acting in HBO cable movie Hysterical Blindness, where she was also one of the executive producers. Thurman played a New Jersey woman in the 1980s searching for romance. In its review, the San Francisco Chronicle remarked: "Thurman so commits herself to the role, eyes blazing and body akimbo, that you start to believe that such a creature could exist—an exquisite-looking woman so spastic and needy that she repulses regular Joes. Thurman has bent the role to her will."Thurman reunited with Quentin Tarantino for the two-part martial arts action film Kill Bill, portraying 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. Thurman's main inspiration for the role was the title character of Coffy and the character of Gloria Swenson from Gloria. She said that both of them are "two of the only women I've ever seen be truly women holding a weapon". Production was delayed for several months after Thurman became pregnant and 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. Kill Bill was originally set to be released as one film, however, due to its long running time, it was ultimately released in two parts. Both volumes scored highly with critics and audiences, subsequently developing a cult following. Rolling Stone likened Thurman to "an avenging angel out of a 1940s Hollywood melodrama". She was nominated for two Golden Globe for both entries, plus three MTV Movie Awards for Best Female Performance and two for Best Fight.
By the mid-2000s, Thurman had a reported asking price of US$12.5 million per film. Besides the children's film , in which Thurman had a cameo, she had three other major film releases throughout 2005. Her first film in the year was the crime-comedy Be Cool, the sequel to 1995's Get Shorty, which reunited her with her Pulp Fiction castmate John Travolta. Despite a lukewarm critical reception, the film grossed US$95 million. She next starred in the romantic comedy Prime with Meryl Streep, playing a divorced and lonesome business-woman who enters a relationship with a much younger man. A modest mainstream success, it eventually grossed US$67.9 million internationally. In the remake The Producers, Thurman played Ulla, a Swedish stage actress hoping to win a part in a new Broadway musical. The producers of the film originally planned to have another singer dub in her musical numbers, but Thurman was eager to do her own vocals; she is credited for her songs in the film. While box office receipts were modest, Thurman garnered acclaim from critics; A. O. Scott of The New York Times said: "Uma Thurman as a would-be actress is the one bit of genuine radiance in this aggressively and pointlessly shiny, noisy spectacle."
Career fluctuations (2006–2011)
In 2006, Thurman starred opposite Luke Wilson in My Super Ex-Girlfriend, playing a superhero who is dumped by her boyfriend and then takes her revenge upon him. She received $14 million for the role, but the film was panned by critics and made a modest US$61 million worldwide. Entertainment Weekly felt that it was a "miscalculation to make Thurman the antagonist. She does a sprightly satiric turn, but wasted in a movie that would rather tweak male paranoia than liberate a nerdette terrified of her powers". In the 2007 film The Life Before Her Eyes, Thurman starred as an accident survivor whose guilt causes her present-day life to fall apart. It received a limited theatrical release and was dismissed by critics as "a confusing, painfully overwrought melodrama".In 2008, Thurman starred with Colin Firth and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in The Accidental Husband, a romantic comedy where she played a woman who finds herself married while engaged to another man. Despite theatrical runs abroad, the film was released on DVD in North America due to financial problems with its distributor. She also took on the role of a cocaine addict in the British television drama My Zinc Bed, which garnered what was considered poor ratings, especially given her involvement.
In 2009's Motherhood, she starred as a New York City mother whose dilemmas of marriage, work, and self are shown in the trials and tribulations of one pivotal day. "I've never really played a realistic mom before," she said. Distributed for a limited release to certain parts of the United States only, the independent dramedy garnered just US$93,388 in three weeks of release. The New York Times critic A. O. Scott felt that Thurman's character is "scattered, ambivalent, flaky and inconsistent—all of which is fine, and energetically conveyed by Ms. Thurman. But what are tolerable quirks in a person can be deadly to a narrative the movie stumbles from loose and scruffy naturalism to sitcom tidiness". Thurman filmed a brief role in the fantasy adaptation , appearing as Medusa, a gorgon cursed by Athena.
In 2011, she was a member of the jury for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and her only film in the year—Ceremony—was released for VOD and selected theaters after its initial screening at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. In the independent comedy, she starred as woman on the eve of her wedding who re-connects with an old fling. By that time, she had taken on the roles of a powerful and wealthy mistress in the period drama Bel Ami, a trophy wife in the romantic comedy Playing for Keeps, and that of Lois Lane in a segment of the anthology film Movie 43 ; all films were panned by critics and flopped at the box office. Writing for the New York Daily News in her review for Ceremony, Elizabeth Weitzman noted: "She gets stuck in so many small, undeserving projects, one has to wonder who's mapping out her career".
Television roles and Broadway debut (2012–present)
Thurman ventured into television in 2012, when she joined the cast of the drama series Smash in its first season, portraying the five-episode role of Rebecca Duvall, a Hollywood actress who wants to star in a new Broadway musical, despite having limited musical ability. Her performance garnered critical acclaim, with The A.V. Club writing: "Uma Thurman is a lot of fun. She gives that character some pop, playing both the shallow, demanding side of celebrity and the sincere, talented side ". She earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.in February 2014|left|267x267px
Thurman appeared in the Volume I of Lars von Trier's two-part ensemble art drama Nymphomaniac as Mrs. H, a rejected wife who confronts her estranged husband. Despite her limited screen time in the film, Rolling Stone magazine remarked that she was "sensational" in a role that defies "'s mixed feelings about female power", while Vanity Fair found her to be "downright terrific", noting that she "lends the character a good deal of dignity". For her part, she received a Bodil Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and in 2014, she won the BAMBI Award for Best International Actress.
In 2015, Thurman starred on the NBC miniseries The Slap, the American adaptation of the Australian series of the same name about the fallout after a man slaps another couple's misbehaving child, and played a famed restaurant critic named Simone in the drama Burnt, starring Bradley Cooper. On its review for the third episode of The Slap, TV Overmind wrote that the production was a "reminder as to why this actress has gone so far in her career". In 2017, Thurman took on the recurring role of a fixer on the Bravo dark comedy series Imposters, which ran for two seasons, and was named president of Cannes Film Festival "Un Certain Regard" jury for "works which offer a unique perspective and aesthetic".
Thurman made her Broadway debut in The Parisian Woman, a play written by Beau Willimon. Set in Washington, D.C., the production saw her star as a socialite coming to terms with politics, her past, her marriage and an uncertain future. The play ran for 141 performances, including previews, between November 2017 and March 2018, garnering a mixed critical response and what was described as "strong" box-office returns by Playbill. The New York Times remarked: "Unlike many actors whose expertise derives from movies, has no trouble fully inhabiting, and projecting, even a jury-rigged character like . Her intelligence and, it has to be said, her innate glamour, make it possible to care about someone you do not believe in". For her role, she won the Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Leading Actress in a Play.
The Con Is On, an independent heist comedy Thurman filmed in 2015, opposite Tim Roth, was released on May 4, 2018. Both actors played a con-artist couple planning a jewel heist in Los Angeles, after escaping from a notorious Russian gangster. She reunited with director Lars von Trier to play the first victim of a serial killer during the 1980s in his psychological horror film The House That Jack Built, which premiered on May 14, 2018, at the Cannes Film Festival. In her next film, the supernatural thriller Down a Dark Hall, directed by Rodrigo Cortés, Uma portrayed the role of Madame Duret, the eccentric headmistress of a mysterious school for troubled girls. In its review for the latter film, Variety noted that she "cuts an elegant figure but her somewhat unconvincing villain could have used more notes of mystery and wit".
In May 2018, Thurman was cast as Nancy Lefevre in the Netflix supernatural series Chambers. It premiered on April 26, 2019. It was later cancelled after one season.
In March 2019, Thurman received career honorary award "Special David", given by Italian David di Donatello awards ceremony.
Thurman is scheduled to perform the role of Helene Alving in a revival of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in August 2019.
Public image
General
In 1995, Thurman was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history, ranking at No. 20, and in 1997, the magazine listed her as No. 99 in its "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. She has also ranked in various occasions in FHMs "100 Sexiest Women in the World" list from the mid 1990s onwards. Thurman has been listed as No. 34, No. 21 and No. 30 in Maxim magazine's "Hot 100" in 2004, 2005 and 2006 respectively. She was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of the 21st Century" by GQ magazine.On February 7, 2006, Thurman was awarded and named a knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France for outstanding achievement in the field of art and literature, and for her work and importance as an actress.
The American rock band Fall Out Boy released a song titled "Uma Thurman" in 2015, celebrating the actress and her roles in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. She gave permission for the band to use her name, and during an interview on the Today Show, stated: "It's very, like unbelievably polite and gracious of them. So sweet. I'm so happy for their big success".
In May 2020, scientists named a new species of fringe-toed lizards from southwest Arizona after Thurman.
Fashion
The Lavender Prada dress Thurman wore at the 67th Academy Awards on March 27, 1995 was admired by the media; Stylecaster.com stated that, as a result, "Thurman became known for her stellar fashion sense, while Prada got a huge boost from instant name recognition the world over." Her Crimson Alberta Ferretti dress at the 72nd Academy Awards on March 26, 2000 remains among the most iconic dresses worn at the ceremony, with The Daily Telegraph voting it the 20th greatest red carpet gown of all time. In 2000, Thurman was selected as the face and spokeswoman of the cosmetics company Lancôme which named several shades of lipstick after her, though they were sold only in Asia. She sued the company in 2008 over the use of her image following her contract expiration. In 2005, she became a brand ambassador for TAG Heuer and the French fashion house Louis Vuitton, appearing on both companies' advertisement and publicity campaigns. Thurman was chosen as the face of Parfums Givenchy in 2009, and fronted the campaign for the women's fragrance Ange ou Démon Le Secret.In 2014, Thurman was protagonist for the 15th Campari Calendar, acclaimed for its beauty and printed in a limited edition of 9999 copies, which Thurman defined "an amazing work of art". She was among the actresses photographed by Peter Lindbergh for the 2017 Pirelli Calendar.
Personal life
In June 2018, it was reported that Thurman is getting help from the former Swedish Minister for Justice, Thomas Bodström, to gain Swedish citizenship. Thurman has ancestry from Skane, Sweden, and wants to move there.Relationships
Thurman met English actor Gary Oldman on the set of State of Grace; they married in 1990 and divorced in 1992. On May 1, 1998, she married American actor Ethan Hawke, whom she met on the set of the 1997 film Gattaca. Hawke's novel Ash Wednesday is dedicated to "Karuna", Thurman's middle name. Together, Thurman and Hawke had two children, a daughter, Maya, and a son, Levon. The couple separated in 2003, and the divorce was finalized in August 2005.Thurman began dating London-based French financier Arpad Busson in 2007, and they announced their engagement in June 2008. In late 2009, they called off their engagement, but reconciled soon after. The couple called off the engagement for the second time in April 2014. Thurman and Busson have a daughter, Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson, known as Luna. In January 2017, Thurman and Busson began child custody negotiations in relation to their daughter, which resulted in Thurman receiving primary physical custody later that month. attending Pulp Fictions 20th anniversary tribute at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival |246x246px
Stalking incidents and sexual assaults
Thurman was the target of a stalker from about 2004 to 2011. He was arrested in October 2007 and, following a trial in which Thurman testified as a witness, was convicted of stalking and harassment charges the following May. Sentenced to three years' probation, he was arrested again in 2010 on charges of violating a restraining order by attempting to contact her. He pleaded guilty in November 2011 after spending 11 months in jail in lieu of bail, and was released with time served.In 2017, following the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations, Thurman was interviewed, and, when asked about the scandal, she replied, "no comment", claiming to be too angry to talk about the case. A few weeks later, through an Instagram post, she joined the "Me Too" hashtag, confirming that she had suffered sexual harassment and expressing disgust for Harvey Weinstein. On February 3, 2018, in a New York Times interview, Thurman revealed that Weinstein had sexually assaulted her in 1994 at the Savoy Hotel. She also revealed that she had been sexually assaulted by an actor 20 years her senior when she was 16 years old.
''Kill Bill'' car crash
In the same February 2018 New York Times interview, Thurman also described how she had been in a serious automobile accident on the set of Kill Bill because Tarantino had insisted she perform her own driving stunts. Two weeks after the crash, Thurman tried to see footage of the incident. Thurman stated that Miramax would only agree to show her the footage if she signed a contract "releasing them of any consequences of my future pain and suffering", which she refused. As a result of the crash, Thurman sustained permanent injuries to her neck and knees. Tarantino later called this incident "the biggest regret of his life". Thurman later clarified on Instagram that Tarantino had apologized to her for the incident and that she has since forgiven him, being open to working with him again in the future.Activism and political views
Thurman has been involved in various philanthropic and activist causes. She supports the United States Democratic Party, and has given money to the campaigns of John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Joseph R. Driscoll. She supports gun control laws, and in 2000 participated in Marie Claires "End Gun Violence Now" campaign. She is a member of the board of Room to Grow, a charitable organization providing aid to families and children suffering poverty. She serves on the board of the Tibet House US. In 2007, she hosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway with actor Kevin Spacey.In February 2008, ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Thurman talked about human rights in China alongside Steven Spielberg and others, describing actions and policies carried out by the government of China as "horrible" and "unspeakable crimes against humanity".
In 2011, Thurman was one of several celebrities associated with the USAID and Ad Council's FWD campaign, an awareness initiative tied to that year's East Africa drought. She joined Geena Davis, Chanel Iman and Josh Hartnett in TV and internet ads to "forward the facts" about the crisis. During the same year, she also participated at Human Rights Campaign for LGBT civil rights, saying "We're fighting for a conservative value: the right to make a lifelong commitment to someone you love". In 2015, Thurman joined "Rhino Rescue Project" and traveled to Southern Africa to assist and help relocating the threatened species of black rhinoceros; being in close contact with rhinos, Thurman defined her experience with those animals to be "spiritual, surreal".
In December 2017, during the allegations of sexual misconduct against Roy Moore, Thurman expressed her strong disapproval of his candidacy in the United States Senate special election in Alabama.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1987 | Kiss Daddy Goodnight | Laura | |
| 1988 | Johnny Be Good | Georgia Elkans | |
| 1988 | The Adventures of Baron Munchausen | Venus / Rose | |
| 1988 | Dangerous Liaisons | Cécile de Volanges | |
| 1990 | Where the Heart Is | Daphne McBain | |
| 1990 | Henry & June | June Miller | |
| 1991 | Robin Hood | Maid Marian | |
| 1992 | Final Analysis | Diana Baylor | |
| 1992 | Jennifer 8 | Helena Robertson | |
| 1993 | Mad Dog and Glory | Glory | |
| 1993 | Even Cowgirls Get the Blues | Sissy Hankshaw | |
| 1994 | Pulp Fiction | Mia Wallace | |
| 1995 | A Month by the Lake | Miss Beaumont | |
| 1996 | Beautiful Girls | Andera | |
| 1996 | The Truth About Cats & Dogs | Noelle Sluarsky | |
| 1996 | Duke of Groove | Maya | Short film |
| 1997 | Batman & Robin | Dr. Pamela Isley / Poison Ivy | |
| 1997 | Gattaca | Irene Cassini | |
| 1998 | Les Misérables | Fantine | |
| 1998 | The Avengers | Emma Peel | |
| 1999 | Sweet and Lowdown | Blanche | |
| 2000 | Vatel | Anne de Montausier | |
| 2000 | The Golden Bowl | Charlotte Stant | |
| 2001 | Tape | Amy Randall | |
| 2001 | Chelsea Walls | Grace | |
| 2003 | ' | Beatrix Kiddo / The Bride | Also co-creator character |
| 2003 | Paycheck | Dr. Rachel Porter | |
| 2004 | ' | Beatrix Kiddo / The Bride | Also co-creator character |
| 2005 | Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind | Kushana | English dub |
| 2005 | Be Cool | Edie Athens | |
| 2005 | Prime | Rafi Gardet | |
| 2005 | ' | Herself | |
| 2005 | The Producers | Ulla | |
| 2006 | My Super Ex-Girlfriend | Jenny Johnson / G-Girl | |
| 2007 | The Life Before Her Eyes | Diana McFee | |
| 2008 | The Accidental Husband | Emma Lloyd | Also producer |
| 2009 | Motherhood | Eliza Welsh | |
| 2010 | ' | Medusa | |
| 2010 | Ceremony | Zoe | |
| 2012 | Bel Ami | Madeleine Forestier | |
| 2012 | Playing for Keeps | Patti King | |
| 2013 | Movie 43 | Lois Lane | Segment "Super Hero Speed Dating" |
| 2013 | Nymphomaniac | Mrs. H | |
| 2014 | The Mundane Goddess | Hera | Short film |
| 2014 | The Gift | Miss Anderson | Short film |
| 2014 | Jump | Wendy | Short film |
| 2015 | Burnt | Simone | |
| 2018 | The Con Is On | Harriet Fox | |
| 2018 | The House That Jack Built | Lady 1 | |
| 2018 | Down a Dark Hall | Madame Simone Duret | |
| 2020 | The War with Grandpa | Sally | Post-production |
| TBA | Tau Ceti Four | ? |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2000 | Great Books | Narrator | 1 episode |
| 2002 | Hysterical Blindness | Debby Miller | Television film; also executive producer |
| 2008 | My Zinc Bed | Elsa Quinn | Television film |
| 2008 | Joy | Television film | |
| 2012 | Smash | Rebecca Duvall | 5 episodes |
| 2014 | American Dad! | Gwen Ling | Episode: "Now and Gwen" |
| 2015 | The Slap | Anouk Latham | 6 episodes |
| 2017–2018 | Imposters | Lenny Cohen | 6 episodes |
| 2019 | Chambers | Nancy Lefevre | Main cast |