It took me until 35 to walk without being self-conscious, says Uma Thurman

London: Uma Thurman, who gave birth to a daughter with financier Arpad Busson in July, has revealed what she wishes she had known when she was 18.

The 42-year-old actress, who has lobbied for tighter gun controls in America, has been married to actors Gary Oldman and Ethan Hawke, with whom she has two children. “I WAS always told by my parents as a kid, ‘Why do it right when you can do it yourself?’” the Sun quoted her as saying. “I wish at 18 that I’d known exactly what that meant. “It was being given a chance to make your own mistakes and learn from them. “I also wish I had known at 18 that I would, one day, be treated as sensitive, with views of my own. When you are a young woman, it is so hard to get listened to. “Was my height an issue? At nearly 6ft tall, with large feet, of course it was! “Once you get a job, you will feel different about yourself and establish your own identity. It took me until about 35 to walk without being self-conscious. “Everything is easier for me now. There is nothing that is NOT easier than being a kid. “I even found that, in later life, a lot of guys have foot fetishes. Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies) is very open about his foot fetishes. “I wish I hadn’t listened too closely to the voices of caution. I would be told, in my teens, ‘enjoy yourself, because you might not be an adult woman actor’. “When I was in my early twenties, it was, ‘enjoy this, because by the time you are in your late twenties it might not work’. So, in the end, there may not be time to enjoy the journey. “We were an odd family - bohemian and eccentric. “My father Robert was a lecturer and a very smart guy. “My mother, Nena, a model and psychotherapist, is Swedish which adds to her fire. “When I was 18, I was in the film Dangerous Liaisons and thought I was so grown up. “I could not stand being the inflatable sex doll everyone wanted me to be. I was naive, sexually, when I made that film and it felt paralysing to be thrust in to this overtly sexual image which had nothing to do with who I was,” she added. ANI