Uma Thurman on Returning to Action After Kill Bill & Playing a Mysterious Villain in The Old Guard 2

I'm always so psyched when you're on the show and I get a little giddy. It's really fun for me too. It is? Okay, good. Yeah, you're the best. No, I'm not. Yes, you are. No, you are. No, you really are. No, let's talk about it. We can go all night. I do love you and we always get into talking about some fun things. And you're such a great New Yorker. You moved here when you were a... Like 15, 16. Really? Yeah. Not intimidated? Not scared? Terrified. Oh, you were? Oh, God, yeah. Because you always seem so cool. Oh, no. Well, I have to stay cool. That's what New York teaches you. No matter what's going on, try to look forward and stay cool. What was the most intimidating things about the city? Oh, just like wandering around the streets. I mean, I always think I'm kind of a fake New Yorker because I never learned the subway system. I'm not good at that either. Yeah. No, I'm not good at that. I was too scared. Like when I was a kid, I spent all my money on cabs. Yeah. Yeah, I would just get into the cab. If I had like five bucks and 25 cents in my pocket, I'd be like, Sir, I've got five dollars. Can you just drive me kind of towards this area? And like when I run out of money, I'll just get out. And I'll walk and they're really nice. Do you remember getting recognized for the first time or autographs? I actually, I had the most honorable first recognition. Someone walked up to me and they said, Oh, my God, are you Jodie Foster? And I was like, so honored. I was like, Oh, my God, I love her, too. You just made my whole career mistaken for Jodie Foster. Oh, the coolest. Yeah, exactly. I know that you were in here. You just shot a finished shoot. We can talk about that. We can. Yeah, we can. We can. You're in the new Dexter. Everybody in New York knows about Dexter shooting in New York. Yeah, you're Dexter Resurrection. Dexter. Dexter Resurrection. I'm excited about this. I'm totally excited, too. And Michael C. Hall, brilliant. Michael C. Hall is so amazing. He's like and he's really, really sweet and kind. Yeah, I know. I know you don't want to hear that about Dexter. No, because it's the most frightening show. You watch Dexter's scariest show ever. You were like, it's so fun. The set is fun. Yeah, I mean, that's like the great like there's often these kind of like inversions where like the materials kind of heavier, dark, but like then the people are the nicest you've ever worked with. Yeah, of course. It's just these strange inversions that happen. I can't wait to see in that. It's like sometimes comedies are really tense. Yeah, because no one's allowed to laugh. No one edit and stuff. Yeah, it's very stressful. Like, oh, God, it's comedy. It's like, no one laughs. You ruin the take. And there's like blood and mayhem there. Yeah, let's talk about The Old Guard, too, by the way. This is fantastic. The first one was a massive hit. And you've been in some of those iconic action movies. Did you go? I think I want to jump back in and show everyone how it's done. Or what was that like? I didn't think I was going to show anybody how it was done after I saw Charlize in Old Guard 1. Oh, she's phenomenal. She is great. And she's incredible. And I thought that she was so fantastic in that. I thought it was such a unique kind of action movie. It had such character and depth and was really quite moving. So when you were in Kill Bill, what are you talking about? You're unbelievable. Are you joking me? Yes. Well, you're very cute. Well, in The Old Guard 2, it's kind of a way for me to like, you know, put my toe into action again. And 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. Right. Like when you do Kill Bill that you never stop hearing about. You know, it's like, oh, I got to be very careful about what I do next. So I did other stuff. But everything you do is great. So this one seemed different. Because like The Old Guard 1, Charlize was just so epic in it. And so I thought, well, I could go do like 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. Yeah. It was fun. And I was thinking in my head, I go, well, maybe that's stressful. You get in there because you got to do a big fight scene. You got to train. And I was asking you backstage. Oh, if only I could have trained. No, I came on to do it like kind of at the end. So I had no training. I was like, oh, yeah, a sword. I think I hold it like this. Oh, yeah, I know how to do it. But you were like this. But you're telling me backstage. I go, is it the action scenes that you're nervous about? And you go, no, you know what it really is? And you go, it's the eating. I don't like eating on camera. And I go, wait, what? By the way, do you know that eating in front of strangers is one of the questions on the DSM? Do you know what the DSM is? It's like one of these check things that psychiatrists do to find out what your neuroses are. Oh. Yeah. And so I was surprised. I have been ministered the DSM. And I was OK. I turned out. Yes, of course. Good for you. But I was just fine. But one of the questions is, do you feel anxiety when you eat in front of people? And you do? I was like, yeah. I mean, who doesn't? But anyway, yes, no. Eating and when you're acting is, first of all, you have to do lots of takes. Second of all, you don't pick what's on the menu. And you have to say your lines with your mouth full. And you have to speak sometimes and swallow. And then you start to worry about choking because you don't want to be chewing when you say that line. Brad Pitt is always eating in every one of his scenes. A lot of actors do eating. He's always eating an apple. He's eating an onion. He doesn't care what it is. He's just eating stuff. You know, a good eating scene should be on my bucket list of like stuff I haven't nailed. Really? You don't think you've nailed it? I have not nailed eating. No. It's like, it's I don't know. It's like skinny dipping or something. Like you have the things you haven't done. Yeah. You're like, oh, just say action. OK, I'll do it. No one look. That cheeseburger and me are going to be like. Well, let's have an old guard. You play discord. I do. I play the bad guy. Do you like playing the bad guy? Nah, sometimes. I like playing particularly funny bad guys. Yeah, well, you like playing funny bad guys. Or do you do what you wouldn't do? Could you play a bad guy? No, no, no. I don't think I can. I think I don't think I can. I can't play a good guy. You can't. You throw me off the set. Radiates from you. I do. Of goodness. Radiates from. Yes. Yeah. Oh, wow. You should watch me eat. Once I eat in front of you, you'll never let me. It's OK. We'll hand you a napkin. Yeah, you will. OK, yeah. I think it'd be fun to play a villain. I always love. Oh, no, no. Villains are fun. This one's quite mysterious. And it's I like the tone of the movie. These characters are all really. Well, they've lived forever. You know that thing where you say about somebody. Oh, like they've seen it all. Right. All these characters. They really have seen it all. Yeah, they've lived for thousands of years. They've lived for thousands of years. The first one was a massive hit. Which is kind of trippy to think about. Right. Imagine like witnessing all of history. Yeah, I know. You wouldn't have to rely on history. There's already talk of Olgar 3 being shot. Did you hear rumors of this? There's whispers. I think we'll leave it to the fans. Oh, I think. Come on. As soon as we see Olgar 2. You and Charlize Theron. Are you kidding me? I will watch that. I cannot wait. This is going to be unbelievable. I want to show everyone a clip. Here's Uma Thurman and Charlize Theron in the Old Guard 2. Take a look. Stop it. That's unbelievable. That's how you do it, right? July 2nd. Netflix. We'll be right back with more Tonight Show. Stick around, everybody.