Kidman's loss is Thurman's gain

Uma Thurman

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood beauty Uma Thurman can't stop laughing and she has Nicole Kidman to thank for the bellyaches and possibly an Oscar.

When Kidman dropped out of the film version of the Broadway hit The Producers in December, just weeks before shooting was scheduled to begin in New York, Thurman jumped at the vacant role.

At the time, Kidman was juggling a number of projects, including the ill-fated Australian film Eucalyptus with Russell Crowe, and did not have enough time to prepare for the role of Ulla, The Producers' Swedish bombshell secretary.

With Eucalyptus now shut down and The Producers - co-starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick - tailor-made for the Academy Awards, Thurman could be dancing and singing her way to a supporting actress Oscar that could have been Kidman's.

"I'm singing and dancing and it's really wonderful fun," Thurman told AAP in Los Angeles.

"I'm having a great time.

"Doing the rehearsal for the performance of Spring Time For Hitler, literally I almost cry with laughter when they say 'Hotsy-totsy Nazi."

Dancing in front of a camera is something Thurman has had plenty of success at.

In her latest film, Be Cool, Thurman hits the dance floor again with John Travolta.

Thurman and Travolta enjoyed one of the most memorable Hollywood dance scenes of the last couple of decades in 1994's Pulp Fiction, a role that scored Thurman her first and only Oscar nomination.

In Be Cool, a sequel to Travolta's 1995 gangster comedy Get Shorty, Travolta returns as Chili Palmer, a mobster who has his eye on Tinseltown's music business.

Thurman plays Edie Athens, a suntanned vamp and owner of a failing independent record label.

There are plenty of cool characters in Be Cool, but Thurman, despite her six foot frame and fashion model looks, says "cool" is not a word she would use to describe herself.

"I am totally uncool," the new face of fashion house Louis Vuitton said.

"I think that's the coolest thing about me. I am very uncool. I just don't try to be cool. I am myself."

Thurman, a 34-year-old mother of two, reveals plenty of flesh in Be Cool, parading around in a string bikini.

In The Producers, as Ulla, Thurman will be revealing in other ways, although some prosthetics will likely help.

Ulla is traditionally voluptuous and Thurman, who is yet to see her costume, is predicting she will resemble another famous well endowed woman.

"I think they'll end up Erin Brockoviching me," Thurman said.

- AAP