Uma Thurman Pays It Forward

You're thinking, Wow, Uma Thurman is looking great these days -- what's she been up to? Well, she's been working her butt off: The waify former model transformed herself into a martial arts master to play a sexy assassin in the epic Kill Bill (parts 1 and 2) -- reteaming with friend and colleague Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), then immediately switched gears for legendary Hong Kong helmer John Woo to star opposite Ben Affleck in the sci-fi thriller Paycheck -- an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel in which an iniquitous technology company erases the memory of its engineers -- and her character's boyfriend (Affleck), who then has to find his way back to her and his past.

Thurman also recently separated from husband, actor Ethan Hawke (father of her two children, Maya and Levon), but she's nothing if not totally together with her life and career.

Women.com talked to Uma about her philosophy of life, slap kicks and stop points, being covered in blood, working with brilliant directors and balancing work and motherhood. And you can bet what she had to say was full of the insight of a woman who has finally come into her own.