Uma Thurman's superhero transformed into vexed ex

LOS ANGELES - Love is hard, even for a superhero. Just ask actress Uma Thurman, who plays "G-girl" in the new movie My Super Ex-Girlfriend about a high-flying, crime-fighting girl who gets dumped by her Earth-bound boyfriend.

The comedy grounds the fantasy world of super-heroism in plain old everyday life, except My Super Ex has less to do with battling bad guys than with healing the wounds of a jilted lover, G-girl.

"The whole tone of the movie is very reality-based because we wanted it, and her, to feel very normal," Thurman said.

But giving the movie its down-to-earth sensibility required some fairly typical Hollywood elements - an "average Joe" boyfriend, eye-popping special effects and, most importantly, fabulous fashion. They are elements her fans might not expect.

Thurman, 36, is the daughter of an academic whose speciality was Buddhism. The striking, six-foot-(1.83m) tall, blue-eyed blonde gained fame in director Quentin Tarantino's 1994 hit, Pulp Fiction, which earned her an Oscar nomination for supporting actress.

While her work over nearly two decades has ranged from low-budget dramas such as Henry and June to flashy musicals like The Producers, Thurman is best known for offbeat independent fare like Tarantino's Kill Bill films.

Those days may be over, said Thurman.

"I love big production values, now. I think that's come with age," she said. "My days of the grimy, grungy, indie movie are over... I love to be moved, but I love to be moved to laugh, too. Maybe I've become a big, soppy sell-out, but I like it."

Jilted superlover

In My Super Ex, Thurman portrays ordinary Jenny Johnson, a nerdy New Yorker who runs an art gallery by day and fights crime by night. What her "G" stands for is never said, and nobody knows. But who cares? She saves the world.

Early on, she meets engineer Matt Saunders, a guy so shy he can't get a date. Soon, geek love ensues. She flies him into the stratosphere. They make love in ways he never has before.

But Jenny is slightly neurotic, and Matt in reality is smitten with a co-worker. So he dumps her, leaving G-girl heartbroken and vowing revenge with various weapons of boyfriend destruction including a Great White Shark tossed into his bed.

G-girl would give almost anything to get her man back, but one thing she keeps intact is her sense of fashion. She wears a new outfit every time she saves the world, and her "G" insignia is more an accessory than an emblem like Superman's "S".

"I wanted her to look proud and strong ....and have sensuality but not in that trampy, you know, like that push-up bra and boobs in your face kind of way," she said.

Breaking up is never easy, and in real life, Thurman knows that, too. She has been married twice - the first time to actor Gary Oldman in the early 1990s and more recently to actor Ethan Hawke, with whom she has two kids. They divorced in 1994.

When many Hollywood actresses reach their mid-30s, they say roles dry up because producers want only young women. But Thurman keeps on working in good movies. She chalks up her success to simply taking the best parts she can, when she can.

"Nobody said it was easy, or everybody would be doing it," she said.

- REUTERS

* My Super Ex-Girlfriend opens in NZ on August 24.