Chops away

THE actors in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill suffered for their art. Fight scenes, involving swords and martial arts, left them battered and bruised. Star Uma Thurman, who trained for months to prepare for her role as the avenging Bride, took the knocks in her stride. "When you film fast and quick every day for thousands of days, it's par for the course," she says.

One of the hardest sequences involved the Bride being buried alive in a coffin. You don't have to be claustrophobic to find it frightening, she says. "We shot that from every possible configuration you could believe with a girl, a camera and a box," she says. "In fact, very little is on screen as the sound is so effective. You can just hear me and the dirt hitting the wooden lid."

For Michael Madsen, who previously worked with Tarantino as ear-slicing Mr Blond on Reservoir Dogs, the most difficult scene was his character Budd being bitten on the face by a deadly black mamba snake.

"I'm not very fond of snakes," he says. "They have their own agenda. All they really think about is escape, so they're not really that dangerous. I was glad when the sequence was finished, being poked in the eye by a special effects guy with a rubber snake on a pole."

Daryl Hannah's Elle Driver wears an eye patch, so when she loses her good eye in a fight the actress was left unable to see a thing through the prosthetics and blood on the wound. "That was really the only part of the fight that was unchoreographed, where I was flailing around the bathroom," he says.

"It was like when people say they get a rush of adrenalin. When I went berserk I broke the toilet in half, the sink came off the wall and the shower came down on my head. I was battered and bruised, I couldn't see."

David Carradine, alias the Bill of the title, was cut during a sword fight. A small price to pay for the career boost the film is providing for the man who found fame as Caine in the TV's Kung Fu series.

Producer Harvey Weinstein called it a renaissance rather than a comeback, and the actor says good reaction on the promotional tour means he has to take that seriously. "I knew something like this would happen. The only thing that surprised me was I didn't think I'd be on social security when it came around," he explains.

Carradine had a good time making the film with Tarantino. "He's so much fun and having so much fun. It's as much fun as a barrel of monkeys," he says. "It's like talking to a runaway train because he's in so many places at once.

"A good director generally doesn't tell an actor how to act. Most of the time when they do it doesn't help. Quite the reverse. Quentin was able to tell me things that ignited me. And he whispers. It's a conspiracy and that's kind of exciting in itself."

After 40 years, 102 feature film, countless TV and theatre, including 11 Shakespeare plays, he didn't think there was anything he could do to go forward - "he got me to push another handle".

The veteran actor, artist, musician, sculptor, writer, composer and kung fu master (to name but a few) harbours no doubts. "I couldn't have proceeded with any of those films if I didn't believe I was the best there is," he says.

"Years and years ago when I was doing a play, The Royal Hunt Of The Sun, the author Peter Shaffer said I was the actor of my generation. I thought that sounded pretty good. And he told me to stay away from television, which I didn't do.

"I've never had any doubts, not so much about my ability as my destiny. That's the way I've always felt about life. It's going to happen.

"I like what I did in this picture a little more because I'm not doing an accent or a funny walk. I'm not pretending to be anyone but what I am - except I'm not a serial assassin. Some people say Bill is the villain. I say there are no good guys in Quentin Tarantino films."

If Carradine's work prospects look good as a result of the Kill Bill movies, Thurman hasn't settled on her next move. She doesn't go along with theories about certain films changing your career. It's always changing, she maintains.

"Having done this since I was a teenager, I've shifted gear many times, lost control and got it back. Kill Bill was an unusual experience, committing years to a film project. This has been part of my life for a long time. I'm about to run down and then I can figure out what to do."

BILL may have been killed, but he won't lie down. As Kill Bill Vol 2 opens in cinemas, writer and director Quentin Tarantino has plans to continue the stories of the characters in his two-part movie.

Prequels, sequels, comic books and an anime-style version have been mooted. "Some of those things are possible because I spent all this time writing the script and coming up with the mythology," admits the Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction film-maker.

Plans include a graphic novel about Bill's early years and the Viper assassination squad. An anime feature about Bill's origins is another possibility. Then again, he could make a film about the daughter of one of the Bride's victims wanting revenge 15 years later.

Tarantino missed this week's London premiere on Kill Bill Vol 2 but was speaking by satellite from Los Angeles, where he's appearing as a judge on TV talent show American Idol. He's spent four years writing, shooting and promoting the Kill Bill films, conceived as one but split into two once the marathon running time became apparent.

"I guess I see myself on this film as a mountain climber trying to get to the top of Mount Everest to put my flag in there," he says. "I had a little bit of fear about the second because we hadn't cut together. I knew it would work for the first because the House of Blue Leaves was a fantastic climax.

"It was like, 'do I have enough left to be a completely satisfying movie for volume two. We had to do everything on volume one and then go out to sell it. The last time I was in England promoting the first film, I hadn't touched the second. But it ended up working fine."

Kill Bill has helped rejuvenate the careers of stars David Carradine and Daryl Hannah, just as Pulp Fiction pepped up John Travolta's screen pulling power. Perhaps Tarantino has some British actors he could help in the same way. Christopher Lee, he reckons, doesn't need his assistance after The Lord Of the Rings although he's one of his favourite actors.

"I've always liked Tommy Steele," he says to everyone's amazement. A Disney film, The Happiest Millionaire, is the one he remembers Steele in.

Kill Bill Vol 2's 25 million dollar opening weekend was pretty gratifying, he admits. "I've worked on this movie for four years, so admittedly if we did poo-poo at the box-office it would be an anti-climax."

A self-confessed movie buff - which he takes to geekish limits, some feel - he doesn't have self-doubts about the pictures he's trying to make. "I'm a movie fan and making stuff that I want to see. If I'm making it for me, I'll be happy and I'm betting there are people like me out there who want to see it."

His films have been criticised for their violence - a subject he's reluctant to discuss - and Kill Bill Vol 2 contains moments of eye-popping violence. Nothing in his own films makes Tarantino's stomach turn. His next film is likely to be a World War Two film - "a Dirty Dozen kind of movie" - although if he could find "a good, cool horror film I can do cheaply", he'd happily make that.

He wouldn't mind making a Bond movie. The idea isn't as ridiculous as it first sounds. He hasn't had any serious discussions with the producers, but he'd like to do a movie version of the first book Casino Royale. He's even gone as far as talking to th e current screen 007 Pierce Brosnan about the idea.

* Kill Bill Vol 1 is available on DVD and video. Kill Bill Vol 2 (18) is in cinemas from today

Published: 22/04/2004