97PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRED DUVAL/FAMOUS, SHUTTERSTOCK, GETTY IMAGES, WARNER BROS/EVERETT COLLECTION, ALAMY
Life storiesAt the time, Thurman was
married to actor Ethan Hawke. The
pair had met on the set of 1997 sci-fi
thrillerGattacaand married on 1 May 1998. Their first
child,Maya, was born three months later in July 1998, and
theirson, Levon, was born in 2002.
The first twoKill Billfilms were shot over nine months.
All went well until the final week, when Thurman sustained
permanent injuries to her neck and knees after she crashed
whiledriving along a Mexican dirt track at 40mph. She had
beggedfor a stunt person to take her place in the scene, and
blamed Tarantino for making her do it. ‘Quentin and I had
an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me,’
she said. The pair’s friendship was strained for years
afterwards. Thurman claimed Weinstein stopped her
obtaining footage of the crash so she couldn’t sue, but he
denied giving instructions to ‘destroy the vehicle or
orchestrate a cover-up’. Prior to Thurman exposing
Weinstein to theNew York Times,Tarantino managed to
locate the footage and gave it to her. ‘It is the biggest regret
of my life, getting her to do that stunt,’ he said.
In 2003, Thurman and Hawke separated amid reports
he was having an affair with their children’s nanny, Ryan
Shawhughes, whom he later married. Hawke maintained
the relationship only started post-divorce. Thurman
described the break-up as ‘excruciating’, and said it left
her self-esteem ‘pretty mangled’, adding that she
and her ex had difficulty communicating because
‘there’s a lot of unfinished damage’.
In 2007, then 37, she started dating Elle
Macpherson’s former partner, billionaire financier
Arpad Busson, then 44. Busson proposed in 2008,
throwing a lavish party at his £10 million London
home in Kensington to celebrate, attended by guests
including Elton John, Sting and Claudia Schiffer.
They split a year later, but reunited in 2011 and, in
July 2012, their daughter Luna was born. However,
by then, the couple had all but split, and things
became toxic when, in January 2017, Busson took
Thurman to court to establish custody rights and
accused her of being a pill-popping, temperamental
mother. In uncomfortable scenes played out in open
court, it emerged Thurman, then 46, had ADHD and
a learning difficulty, and she took medication to treat
depression, anxiety and insomnia. Previously, she
also admitted to developing body dysmorphic
disorder following Maya’s birth, telling one
interviewer, ‘I see myself as fat.’
Meanwhile, Thurman’s career was failing to match
the critical and commercial heights ofPulp Fictionand the
Kill Bill volumes. She had the lead role inMy Super Ex-Girlfriendin 2006, but the film was
panned,and she followed that with
theequally deridedThe Accidental
Husband in 2008, prompting
venerated critic Elizabeth Weitzman to note: ‘[Thurman]
getsstuck into so many small, undeserving projects, one
hasto wonder who’s mapping out her career.’
However, in more recent years, Thurman has
successfully ventured into television and, in 2012, was
nominated for an Emmy for her guest appearance in
Smash. She currently stars in the supernatural drama
Chambers on Netflix – which ironically pits her in the
streaming ratings against her daughter Maya, now 21 and
the breakout star of Netflix’sStranger Things 3.
But if Thurman is troubled by the trajectory of her career,
she doesn’t show it. Instead, with Weinstein’s trial looming,
she prefers to reflect on what
she’s overcome since being
in the public eye. ‘If you
had sat me down [at the
beginning of my career]
and gone through some of
the challenges I would face
and I would overcome and
grow through, I probably
wouldn’t have believed
any of it.’■Clockwise: Thurman
and daughter
Maya; with son
Levon and youngest
daughter Luna; the
actress and her
parents in 2005‘IFYOU HAD SAT MEDOW N AND GONETHROUGH SOME OF THECHALLENGES I WOULDFACE, I WOULDN’T HAVEBELIEVED ANY OF IT’