Uma Thurman was only “about three or four” when a pair of red high heels led to what she calls her first brush with the law. She had decided to buy them herself.
The Pulp Fiction actress shared the memory during the October 21 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Her account, covered by Entertainment Weekly, began with a family move and a shopping trip nobody had authorized.
The Thurmans had just arrived in Amherst, Massachusetts, where her father was teaching. They were settling into faculty housing.
She had spotted the shoes in a store window during the drive into town. After the family reached their new house, she remembered where to find them.
She Offered the Shopkeeper 75 Cents
The following day, while her mother took a nap, Thurman picked up about 75 cents from a table and headed outside. She managed to find the store on her own.
Once inside, she told the shopkeeper that her mother would be joining her shortly. He allowed her to try on the shoes, and she announced that they fit.
Then she handed over her money. The man began to suspect that the adult she had promised wasn’t coming. He started asking questions, and police were called.
Looking back, Thurman offered her own explanation for why those particular shoes had appealed to her. Having arrived somewhere unfamiliar, she wondered whether she had associated them with Dorothy’s ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz and the possibility of going home.
The Police Ride Ended With Her Mother in the Street
The officers asked for her address, but Thurman couldn’t name her street. She offered to walk back herself, insisting that the house was nearby. They weren’t willing to let her leave alone.
Instead, an officer held her on his lap in the back of a squad car while police tried to locate her family. She acknowledged that he was probably friendly, although that wasn’t how he seemed to her at the time. “I really thought I was getting arrested,” Thurman told Fallon.
The unfamiliar view from the vehicle made matters worse. As they drove around, she couldn’t recognize her house well enough to direct them.
Then her mother appeared, screaming in the street. Thurman remembered her muumuu and hip-length hair, comparing her to Miss Clavel, the character from the Madeline books who looks after the girls. The officers recognized that they had found the person they needed, and mother and daughter were reunited.
Modeling Later Helped Pay for Her Independence
Thurman also discussed moving to New York City at 15, a part of the interview highlighted by BroadwayWorld. She said her mother had deliberately raised her to be independent and that the effort had worked.
She had explained the practical side of that ambition in a separate 2008 interview with Fresh Air. Modeling provided money for independence and acting classes, even though she didn’t consider herself particularly successful at it.
Her account described two summers: during the first, she modeled and studied acting before returning to school. By the end of the following summer, she was making her first film at 16. She recalled thinking then that she wasn’t a child actor, a distinction she found funny in hindsight.
Her Fallon Visit Also Included Apples and ‘Dexter’
Thurman brought Fallon a gift from her garden, apples. She also discussed her return as Charley in Dexter: Resurrection, opposite Michael C. Hall.
At an earlier New York Comic Con roundtable, published by Cinema Daily US, Thurman said the new season gave her character more room to reveal the guilt and personal turmoil beneath her controlled exterior.
She also described the preparation behind her scenes with Hall. While he appeared completely at ease, she had spent weeks going over her lines. Hall replied that he worked hard too, even if she didn’t see it. The second season premieres October 30 on Paramount+, with a Premium subscription required in the United States.