Keep Your Fingers Crossed: Uma Thurman Doesn't Rule Out Going Gay
by Brandon Judell
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Whoever said you can't turn a gay man straight has never had his left
hand grasped by Uma Thurman. I've already started watching football.
The stunning Ms. Thurman, wife of Ethan Hawke and mother of Maya Ray
Thurman-Hawke, showed up at the Essex House in Manhattan this week to
promote her part in James Ivory's adaptation of Henry James'
"The Golden Bowl."
(Gay director! Gay author! Unreadable book!) She was
attired in Jean-Paul Gaultier leather -- as we all should be.
In this exquisite-looking costume drama, Uma stars as the very unhappy
Charlotte Stant. Impoverished, she is forced to marry a school friend's
billionaire father so she can commit adultery with her pal's spouse, who
happens to be an Italian prince. Can you blame her?
PlanetOut: Could you get through the book?
UT: Never completely. I'd skim: Charlotte ... Charlotte ...
Charlotte ... Charlotte. Oh, here. Okay, Charlotte ... Charlotte ...
Charlotte. My little joke is that the movie is for all those who
began "The Golden Bowl" and would like to know how it ends.
PlanetOut: How did you grasp this lovesick damsel's character?
UT: You know, I suddenly realized Charlotte's behavior is a total
mirror reflection of Scarlett O'Hara's. Actually the book is very
similar to "Gone With the Wind" in its Rhett Butler/Scarlett kind of
dynamic. And when I figured that out, I then understood everything the
character did. It's that love excuse, as I like to think of it. It's
that thing of a woman's simple inability to believe that she's given
herself to a man who didn't love her. It's that self-delusion, that one
key misrepresentation of the truth to herself, that allows her to fall
further and further away from any type of moral center or any type of
sense of reality, really.
PlanetOut: According to my boss, who's sort of an expert on the
matter, more lesbians dream about you than Anne Heche. What
do you feel about your gigantic lesbian following?
UT: [Smiles.] It's nice work if you can get it. I'm thrilled. I
don't know what to say. I'm very happy. It's a door that I haven't yet
opened in life. But you know, if my marriage doesn't work out, I just
don't know. But it makes me very happy.
I've played a lot of characters who are sort of sexually ambiguous,
either lesbian or bisexual. I've played two, in "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"
and "Henry and June." In "Cowgirls," I was omnisexual, and in
"Henry and June," I was sort of omnisexual, too. So I think that may be
part of the reason. Also, I don't have any discrimination. I don't have
any problem embodying that. ...
PlanetOut: But by taking on those roles, parts actresses might
have rejected 10 or 20 years ago, you are making it easier for young
lesbians to come out. Do you understand that what you are doing has
political significance at times?
UT: Yeah. Well, you do when you go to do something, and people
say to you, 'You shouldn't do that.' And you go, 'Really? Why not? ...
Oh, that's a good reason. That's exactly why I will do it. Thank you so
much for cementing my decision.'
So these things are very obvious. There are many actors who wouldn't
play a homosexual part, and there are many actresses who wouldn't want
to play a lesbian part. I needn't say any more.
PlanetOut: Has it gotten to the point now that people who advise
you just figure, "That's Uma. Just let her do what she wants"? They've
given up resistance?
UT: No, I'm very persuadable. I get hustled all the time. I'm
open to suggestions. I always like to poll everybody. I think people
kind of understand my taste. I've been working with the same people for
like 10 years, and they're good people. I love them. It's always an
exploration.
People usually will be able to guess. If they're presenting me with
something that either I haven't done before or if it totally opposes the
last thing I did, they're going to have a really keen audience in me
because I'm such a contrarian.
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