Washington [US]: Actor Michelle Yeoh says Tarantino didn’t cast her in ‘Kill Bill’ because nobody ‘Would believe Uma Thurman could kick your ass’.
According to Variety, Quentin Tarantino is an outspoken Michelle Yeoh super-fan, so much so that he has cited her performance in the 1992 Jackie Chan action comedy “Police Story 3” as a major influence behind Uma Thurman’s The Bride in “Kill Bill.” So why didn’t Tarantino cast Yeoh in the film? It’s a question Yeoh herself had when she saw “Kill Bill,” and she made sure to confront Tarantino about it when the two met afterwards. “I asked Quentin the same question,” Yeoh said in her Town & Country cover interview (via Entertainment Weekly). “He’s very smart. He said, ‘Who would believe that Uma Thurman could kick your ass?'”
Yeoh and Tarantino have a long history of friendship. After all, Yeoh was encouraged to keep acting by “Pulp Fiction” director after suffering an injury while filming “The Stunt Woman” in 1996.
“I thought I broke my back. I thought I was paralyzed,” Yeoh said, revealing that Tarantino was in Hong Kong at the time screening “Pulp Fiction” and decided to visit her in the hospital.
“I must say, Quentin, he’s persistent,” Yeoh continued. “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.'”
“I was just a huge, huge fan of hers,” Tarantino told Town & Country. “There was always a twinkle in her eye.”
Tarantino just has one movie left to make since he still intends to stop creating feature films after his tenth film. Let’s hope Yeoh makes an appearance in a Tarantino film before he retires.
In preparation for Oscar season, Yeoh is preparing for her praised performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which will put her in the running for best actress. A rarity for an independent film emerging from the epidemic, the action comedy with a multiverse setting has made over $100 million globally, which is also the biggest grossing A24 picture ever.
