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Michelle Yeoh and Quentin Tarantino are fans of each other’s work — so why didn’t he cast the famed martial arts star in his action epic Kill Bill?
“I asked Quentin the same question,” the 60-year-old actress recalled to Town and Country when asked about not being a part of his film. “He’s very smart.”
She said Tarantino replied to her at the time, “Who would believe that Uma Thurman could kick your ass?”
Yeoh also spoke about the director’s talent and motivating ability, as she recalled the 59-year-old Oscar winner encouraging her to continue acting despite fracturing her vertebrae while making 1996’s The Stunt Woman.
“I must say, Quentin, he’s persistent. He is who he is today because he’s full of passion and love, so he wore me down. Suddenly we became animated. So then I thought, ‘Maybe I’m not ready to give up on this,'” Yeoh said.
Tarantino also shared his thoughts about Yeoh in the interview, saying, “I’m just a huge, huge fan of hers,” adding, “there was always a twinkle in her eye.”
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Meanwhile, Tarantino and Thurman, 51, have had a rocky relationship over the years, stemming from a car accident that injured the actress on the Kill Bill: Vol 2 set.
The public first learned of the incident between the pair years later in February 2018, when Thurman gave an interview to The New York Times. According to the actress, she suffered from permanent neck damage, a concussion and damage to her knees in the crash.
Andrew Cooper/A Band Apart/Miramax/Kobal/Shutterstock Uma Thurman in Kill Bill
In the Times piece, the star said she asked Tarantino to see the footage of the accident for years, but he refused. Then, in 2017, he finally apologized and shared the jarring video.
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly in 2018, Thurman said she would consider working with the director again in the future.
“I understand him and if he wrote a great part and we were both in the right place about it, that would be something else,” she said at the time.
