, the star of Quentin Tarantino's martial arts thriller Kill Bill, has stated that she had no intentions of returning to the genre after the two-part samurai film that earned her the status of action star. That is until a certain long-awaited Netflix superhero sequel came around. Thurman is set to appear opposite Charlize Theron in , Netflix's sequel to the 2020 fantasy action hit, and it's a role that drew Thurman back to the action genre after she took some distance over a fear of being typecast.

Thurman appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote the sequel, in which she will play a villain named Discord. While Fallon remarks on her status as an action star and asks her if she was ready to "jump back and show everyone how it's done" in the genre, Thurman confirms that Theron's execution of the action tropes is what everyone should be learning from:

"I didn't think I was going to show anybody how it was done after I saw Charlize in Old Guard 1. She is phenomenal. She's incredible. And I thought that she was so fantastic in that. It was a unique kind of action movie. It had such character and depth and was really quite moving."

But let's be real. Thurman was the Bride in Kill Bill, arguably one of the best action characters in cinema history. Despite the legacy of Tarantino's genre mashup, Thurman says that after making it, she decided to take a step back from the extremely physical genre as she didn't want to be typecast, and also followed advice from others:

"In The Old Guard 2, it was kind of a way for me to put my toe into action again. Honestly, I never really followed Kill Bill up with action because I didn't kind of want to be in a whole bunch of 'B' action movies. When you do Kill Bill, you never stop hearing about, you know, it's like, 'Oh, got to be very careful about what I do next.' So I did other stuff."

Despite showing an obvious affinity for action in Kill Bill, Uma Thurman stayed away from the action spotlight to focus on other genres that could help her avoid the stereotype she quickly became associated with after the Tarantino feature. Nevertheless, the chance to work with another major genre icon made her change her mind about returning to make a big-studio action movie:

"This one seemed different because The Old Guard, Charlize was just so epic in it. And so I thought, 'Well, I could go do this for her in that. Where she's kind of taking the genre there. I'll go support her and fight her and battle her out.' It was fun."

When asked about the possibility of returning for The Old Guard 3 (a sequel is yet to be confirmed), Thurman remains coy, and simply says "there's whispers, we'll leave it to the fans." The Old Guard 2 will be released on Netflix on July 2, 2025.

Source: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon