In the Netflix film “The Old Guard 2,” Charlize Theron and Uma Thurman play immortal warriors blessed — or cursed, depending on your outlook — with incredible recuperative powers. Stab them in the back, shoot them in the face, and wham-o, they heal in seconds. Theron’s character, Andromache of Scythia (Andy for short), has been fighting the good fight, and several bad ones, for over 6000 years; her archnemesis Discord, played by Thurman, is even older.
The action epic marks Theron’s return to the franchise five years after the critically acclaimed first film (the Times’s A.O. Scott praised the movie’s action sequences and “tone of hard-boiled melancholy.”) It also marks Thurman’s high-profile return to the action movie genre, 21 years after she starred in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Volume 2.”
The actors created two of the most celebrated action heroines of all time: Thurman’s The Bride, the vengeful, katana-wielding assassin of the “Kill Bill” films, and Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, the buzzcut-sporting, big rig-driving heroine of “Mad Max: Fury Road.” “Fury Road” was one action film among many for Theron (others include “Atomic Blonde,” “The Italian Job,” and the “Fast and the Furious” franchise). After the “Kill Bill” films, however, Thurman eschewed the action film genre for rom-coms, TV and a run on Broadway, among other things.
The two recently got together at the Netflix offices in Hollywood to discuss women in action films, on-set injuries and what they won’t do in a picture. Below are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Uma, it’s been a while since you’ve done an action movie. Why now, and why this one?
UMA THURMAN Well, I find Charlize to be very mysterious. I feel like she keeps a tight circle around her. But she’s revered and admired, and her work speaks for itself, so this was a special opportunity. Getting to work with a great actress is a precious thing, and projects are usually not designed to bring multiple heavyweight women together, as Charlize has done with this franchise. Every once in a while you see these great ensembles with, like, seven great actresses, and you always feel bad that you weren’t included! You look at them with, like, hunger.