Hannah from Heaven

Some actresses are content to play the same type of character in every film they make. Daryl Hannah, on the other hand, has portrayed a mermaid, a clone, a cavewoman and a 50-foot housewife, just to pluck a few roles from her eclectic resume. That diversity, coupled with periodic tabloid cameos, has led to a hazy public perception of just who resides inside that bombshell exterior. So as Daryl hits the big screen in yet another eccentric role, playing a one-eyed martial arts assassin in Quentin Tarantino's hotly anticipated Kill Bill, we were more than happy to let her get a few things off her chest.

"I've played moms, a hairdresser and a normal girlfriend, too," she laughs. "I think that as soon as you become a public figure, the tabloids make a cartoon character out of you, and they try to keep on drawing. It's funny, because it's so distant from what my real life is. It might be eccentric to be an actress and lead a perfectly normal life, so in that sense I'd say I am eccentric."

Though Daryl's breakthrough role as an uninhibited mermaid in Splash made her an international star, she professes surprise at the 1984 romantic comedy's enduring appeal. "So many kids come up to me and say they were named after me in Splash, so I meet a lot of Hannahs and Madisons," she says. "There's nothing better than making a film that inspires kids' imaginations."

Her favorite roles, however, have had a darker edge, including Pris, the lissome replicant who wraps her thighs around Harrison Ford's neck in the sci-fi classic Blade Runner. Recently Daryl slipped back into Pris's spiky wig and body paint for Entertainment Weekly's cult-movie issue. "We did the shoot in a theater, and I had to park far away and walk there in the costume," she says. "Some people yelled, 'Hey, Pris!' That was kind of cool. I felt totally badass. There are elements of her in some characters that I've been playing recently, so it was nice to put her on again."

She had no such elaborate costume to hide in while playing a stripper in the 2000 indie film Dancing at the Blue Iguana, so Daryl prepped by actually working at a strip club for a few months. "I'd never even been to a strip club before," she says. "I had boyfriends who'd go to strip clubs when we'd get into fights, so the whole thing was scary and intimidating to me. A girl there became my mentor and led me through that world. I had to learn how to dance for the customers, so I wore disguises. I would divide my tips among the girls who were working so I wasn't taking money away from them."

One might think Daryl wouldn't be so fearless after a period in which her personal life became frequent tabloid fodder. A rocky relationship with Jackson Browne included widely publicized allegations of domestic abuse, and her romance with John Kennedy Jr. had packs of paparazzi dissecting their every public gesture (it even spawned a made-for-TV movie in which a little-known actress portrays Daryl). She does admit to being skittish about dating these days. "Most of the guys I've gone out with I've known from the past or met through a friend," she says. "I've never really gone out with strangers. Right now I'm working really hard, so my focus is in that area. Until I fix in me what is drawn to damaged people, I think I'll just be very cautious. But I love boys and making out with boys."

If those boys are very, very lucky, they might be invited to visit Daryl at her primary residence nestled in the Rockies. "My favorite thing is to be naked, which is why I always live in remote areas," she says. "I have a lot of land and several meadows filled with flowers. My ideal is to wake up in the morning and run around the meadow naked. I think it's a good idea to live in harmony with nature. I've been a vegetarian since I was 11 and have lived off the grid for six years now. People don't realize how easy it is to do. My house runs on solar panels, and I have organic vegetable gardens. I've had the same car for 15 years, and its engine runs on used vegetable oil from fast-food restaurants. It burns cleaner than any fuel on the market, smells better and gives better mileage. I'm not trying to judge anyone; I just think it's important to walk the walk as well. This probably all sounds kind of tree-huggy, but the truth is that it's better for the planet, you, your kids and everything you love."

No doubt her Kill Bill character would sneer at such romantic notions. "I play a one-eyed samurai assassin," Daryl says. "All the characters in my assassination squad are named after snakes, and I'm called California Mountain Snake. I'm pissed off and tough." To hone her fighting skills so that she could take on protagonist Uma Thurman in the ultimate blonde-bombshell showdown, Daryl trained for six months with master martial arts choreographer Woo-ping Yuen and kung fu superstar Sonny Chiba. Tarantino wrote the part specifically for Daryl. "It's a dream when someone writes something for you, because I'm a total mess when it comes to meetings or auditions," she says. "Quentin is completely unbound, like a giant ball of youthful energy. He's like a child with that excitement—he makes jokes, he says 'Wow!' It's so much fun to work with someone like that. I've never felt in tune with my chronological age either. That's why I still don't feel like a grown-up."