Tarantino on Why Michelle Yeoh Wasn’t in ‘Kill Bill’: Unbelievable ‘Uma Thurman Could Kick Your Ass’

Michelle Yeoh knows why her longtime fan, Oscar winner Quentin Tarantino, didn’t cast her in his martial arts film “Kill Bill.”

Tarantino has been open about the fact that vengeful The Bride (Uma Thurman) was directly inspired by Yeoh’s role in 1992 action-comedy “Police Story 3,” but Yeoh was never asked to battle it out with The Bride in either “Kill Bill” or its sequel.

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In a Town & Country cover story, Yeoh admitted that she “asked Quentin the same question” about not being cast in the 2003 movie or its subsequent 2004 “Vol. 2.”

“He’s very smart,” Yeoh said of Tarantino. “He said, ‘Who would believe that Uma Thurman could kick your ass?'”

Tarantino shared that he has been a “huge, huge fan” of Yeoh for decades. “There was always a twinkle in her eye,” the “Hateful Eight” director explained.

And the admiration is mutual: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star Yeoh previously revealed that Tarantino inspired her to continue acting after a horrible accident on the set of “The Stunt Woman” almost left her paralyzed.

“I thought, ‘Maybe I’m not ready to give up on this,'” Yeoh said after speaking with Tarantino. She then went on to star in her first English-language lead role for the 1997 James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies.”

There might still be hope for Yeoh appearing in a “Kill Bill” volume, as Tarantino has teased a possible third installment for his 10th and final film.

“Why not?” Tarantino said of a possible third “Kill Bill” film before adding, “But first I want to make a comedy.”

Tarantino added that “Kill Bill Vol. 3” could be about The Bride and Bebe — played by real-life mother and daughter Thurman and Maya Hawke — as a duo on the run 20 years after the events of the sequel. In the meantime, Thurman and Hawke are keeping it all in the family with upcoming dark comedy action movie “The Kill Room,” also starring longtime Tarantino collaborator Samuel L. Jackson.

“The Kill Room,” directed by Nicol Paone, centers on a hitman (Joe Manganiello) and his boss (Jackson) whose involvement with an art dealer (Thurman) accidentally blows their covers. Debi Mazar and Larry Pine also star.

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