Uma Thurman, 50 for the steel rider

Uma Thurman grows big tomorrow but her 50 years today look like 20 just yesterday: Buddhist philosophy, daily training and aesthetic-surgical visits not only keep her charming and toned but have transformed the gracious duckling into a splendid feathered swan. Uma was born in Boston on April 29, 1970 but hers is not a stage name: dad is the most famous Buddhist scholar in America; mom is a German baroness who in the New World juggled first as a model and then with a degree and studies as a psychotherapist. The couple raised the girl and her three brothers in a rigorous and mystical upbringing (Uma's middle name is Karuna which means Compassion in ancient Tibetan), but she was unable to contain the girl's headshots: just 15 years participates in a school play, is passionate about the business and suddenly decides to leave his studies for acting.

She doesn't have an easy life right away but she inherits the naturalness on the catwalk from her mother and earns a living as a wearer, making herself noticed for an exotic charm that also comes from a few drops of Swedish blood for her mother. Daredevil and rebellious, he quickly landed in independent cinema but his debut, alongside the soap-opera star Paul Dillon ("Laura", 1987), is a real disaster and does not even arrive in theaters. Yet his character (a beautiful girl who lures males into bars to drug and rob them) does not go unnoticed and the following year his star shines in Stephen Frears' "Dangerous Relationships". For Uma Thurman it is a triple somersault because, almost inexperienced, he has to cope with sacred monsters of the caliber of Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer. But his naive Cecile conquers everyone and puts another talented debutant, Keanu Reeves, into the background, with whom he pairs in the love affairs hatched by the Marquis of Valmont.

In 1988 the girl dresses (so to speak) in the role of Venus coming out of the shell as in Botticelli's masterpiece for the unbridled fantasy of Terry Gilliam who chose her in her "Baron of Munchausen" and in the early nineties builds a solid reputation between cinema and TV, independent authors and large productions. Then, in 1994, the love at first sight: he passes the audition and becomes the sexy Mia Wallace of "Pulp Fiction": it is like a gong blow in the star system and it is the beginning of a stainless friendship with Quentin Tarantino who will not come not even scratched by Uma's accusations against producer Harvey Weinstein for sexual harassment (at the time) and for putting her at risk in a "Kill Bill" scene that cost her a serious car accident. The link with Tarantino is made of mental harmony, Buddhist practice, passion for cinema out of the rules.

So, despite a series of successes with the films of the studios (he has as partners partner the likes of George Clooney, Sean Connery, Meryl Strep, Vanessa Redgrave after the Oscar nomination for "Pulp Fiction"), he does not think about it for a moment in the 2002 to respond again to the call of his mentor to play The Bride in "Kill Bill". Tarantino says that he wrote the character tailored to her and that it was born from the conversations during the breaks of their first film together. However, he agrees to postpone filming for a whole year waiting for his muse who in the meantime expects a son from his partner Ethan Hawke. Between 2003 and 2004 the two volumes of "Kill Bill" come out and Uma Thurman is now the diva symbol of post-modern cinema in the new century. She works with Mira Nair (who makes her win a Golden Globe for the mini series "The eyes of life"), John Woo, Richard Linklater, Ivan Reitman, showing great versatility and an unexpected comic verve, she is called to the juries of the big festivals , signs calendars and advertisements showing a fair femininity as a blonde rider, politically takes sides and does not fear American moralism in favor of gay couples. In Hollywood he also works with Gabriele Muccino ("What I know about love") and then in Europe with Lars Von Trier (the scandalous "Nynphomaniac" and the provocative "Jack's house"), one of his favorite directors together with F Cary Gray, Gus Van Sant and Ivan Reitman. In 2019 the David di Donatello academy celebrates it with a career award.

We will shortly see her at the cinema in Tim Hill's "War with Grandfather" alongside Robert De Niro but also on TV with "Chambers" in the role of Nancy Lefevre. Private life as lively as the artistic one: she was married to Gary Oldman and Ethan Hawke, she is attributed relationships with Timothy Hutton, John Cusak and the French financier Arpad Busson from whom she separated six years ago. He has three children from two different unions. He declares himself happy to live and "younger than a filly, older than Methuselah thanks to happy reincarnations".