In a new interview with Town and Country, Michelle Yeoh explained how Quentin Tarantino convinced her not to retire from acting — and the pretty legit reason she wasn’t in Kill Bill.
As it turns out, Tarantino is a big ol’ fan of Michelle’s — even back when he was just a video store clerk. Speaking about her role in the 1985 movie Yes, Madam!, he explained, “She parts her hands just before she breaks through the glass so you can see that it’s her. I was just a huge, huge fan of hers. There was always a twinkle in her eye.”
However, Michelle decided to retire for the second time from acting — the first time being after she got married — after she fractured some vertebrae falling from a bridge on the set of the 1996 movie The Stunt Woman.
“I thought I broke my back. I thought I was paralyzed,” she recalled. The accident left her in a brace and in pain every time she breathed.
At this point, Tarantino was working as a director — and in Hong Kong for a Pulp Fiction screening. Michelle gave him five minutes to meet with her, adding, “I must say, Quentin, he’s persistent.”
In the meeting, Tarantino enthusiastically spoke with Michelle about stunts she had done. “Suddenly, we became animated,” she tearfully recalled. “So then I thought, Maybe I’m not ready to give up on this.”
So, given that Michelle’s Supercop role even inspired Uma Thurman during the production of Kill Bill, how come Michelle wasn’t in the 2003 hit? “I asked Quentin the same question,” she explained. “He’s very smart. He said, ‘Who would believe that Uma Thurman could kick your ass?’”
You can read the full interview here.
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