In the Oscar-winning drama Dangerous Liaisons, co-starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich, Thurman took on the role of a naive teenager, seduced by a manipulative man.

[29] Thurman went on to star as the patient of a San Francisco psychiatrist in the neo-noir drama Final Analysis (1992), opposite Richard Gere and Kim Basinger, and as a blind woman romantically involved with a former policeman in the thriller Jennifer 8 (also 1992), with Andy García.

Thurman portrayed a young woman with unusually big thumbs in Gus Van Sant's 1993 adaptation of Tom Robbins' novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

The Washington Post described her acting as shallow and remarked: "Thurman's strangely passive characterization doesn't go much deeper than drawling and flexing her prosthetic thumbs".

[30] Also in 1993, she starred as a waitress opposite Robert De Niro and Bill Murray in the drama Mad Dog and Glory and auditioned for Stanley Kubrick while he was casting for his eventually unrealized adaptation of the novel Wartime Lies.

[39] Thurman's next films, the romantic dramedy Beautiful Girls, in which she played a fairly wise love interest, and the comedy The Truth About Cats & Dogs, in which she top-billed as a ditzy blonde model, were modest commercial successes amid a positive critical response upon their theatrical releases in 1996.

[40][41] In 1997, Thurman starred opposite Ethan Hawke in Gattaca, a science fiction film set in a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic manipulation.

[53] That year, she also starred as a British secret agent in The Avengers, a notable financial and critical flop; CNN described her as "so distanced you feel like you're watching her through the wrong end of a telescope".

[54] In 1999, she performed in theater in an update of Molière's The Misanthrope at the Classic Stage Company,[55] and portrayed a socialite in Woody Allen's romantic dramedy Sweet and Lowdown, opposite Sean Penn.

Thurman was in a hiatus from acting at the time as she had her daughter in 1998, doing only a few small, low-budget projects after giving birth; she eventually turned down the role of Éowyn in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which she considers "one of the worst decisions [she] ever made".

In its review, the San Francisco Chronicle remarked: "Thurman so commits herself to the role, eyes blazing and body akimbo, that you start to believe that such a creature could exist—an exquisite-looking woman so spastic and needy that she repulses regular Joes.

"[59] Thurman reunited with Quentin Tarantino for the two-part martial arts action film Kill Bill (2003–2004), portraying assassin Beatrix Kiddo, out for revenge against her former lover.

He cited Thurman as his muse while writing the film, and gave her joint credit for the character, whom the two conceived on the set of Pulp Fiction from the sole image of a bride covered in blood.

[67] She next starred in the romantic comedy Prime with Meryl Streep, playing a divorced and lonesome business-woman who enters a relationship with a much younger man (Bryan Greenberg).

[72] In 2008, Thurman starred with Colin Firth and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in The Accidental Husband, a romantic comedy where she played a woman who finds herself married while engaged to another man.

[78] Thurman filmed a brief role in the fantasy adaptation Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), appearing as Medusa, a gorgon cursed by Athena.

Thurman appeared in the Volume I of Lars von Trier's two-part ensemble art drama Nymphomaniac (2013) as Mrs. H, a rejected wife who confronts her estranged husband.

Despite her limited screen time in the film,[87][88][89] Rolling Stone remarked that she was "sensational" in a role that defies "[von Trier]'s mixed feelings about female power",[7] while Vanity Fair found her to be "downright terrific", noting that she "lends the character [...] a good deal of dignity".

[94] In 2017, Thurman took on the recurring role of a fixer on the Bravo dark comedy series Imposters,[95] which ran for two seasons,[96] and was named president of Cannes Film Festival "Un Certain Regard" jury for "works which offer a unique perspective and aesthetic".

[99] The play ran for 141 performances, including previews, between November 2017 and March 2018,[100] garnering a mixed critical response and what was described as "strong" box-office returns by Playbill.

[109] In her next film, the supernatural thriller Down a Dark Hall (2018), directed by Rodrigo Cortés, Uma portrayed the role of Madame Duret, the eccentric headmistress of a mysterious school for troubled girls.

[116] Thurman reunited with Robert De Niro, her co-star in Mad Dog and Glory, for the family comedy The War with Grandpa, in which she portrayed the daughter of his recently widowed character.

[125] While Brian Lowry of CNN praised Thurman's efforts at a Greek accent,[126] Adrian Horton of The Guardian described her portrayal as "a cringey caricature" of Huffington.

[136][137] The American rock band Fall Out Boy released a song titled "Uma Thurman" in 2015,[138] celebrating the actress and her roles in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill.

"[144] Similarly, her crimson Alberta Ferretti dress at the 72nd Academy Awards on March 26, 2000, remains among her most notable, with The Daily Telegraph voting it the 20th greatest red carpet gown of all time.

[170][171] In 2017, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations, Thurman was interviewed, and, when asked about the scandal, she replied, "no comment," stating she was too angry to talk about the case.

[175] In the same 2018 New York Times interview, Thurman described how she had been in a serious car accident back in 2003 on the set of Kill Bill, because Tarantino had insisted she perform her own driving stunts.

[188][189] In December 2017, amidst allegations of sexual misconduct against Roy Moore, Thurman voiced her disapproval of his candidacy in the United States Senate special election in Alabama.

She called the law a "human rights crisis for American women", and discussed her experience of obtaining an abortion in her teens after she had been "accidentally impregnated by a much older man."

According to review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes and infotainment website Screen Rant, her most critically acclaimed and commercial successful films include Pulp Fiction (1994), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996), Gattaca (1997), Beautiful Girls (1996), Mad Dog and Glory (1993), Sweet and Lowdown (1999), Tape (2001), Les Miserables (1998), and A Month by the Lake (1995).