This Oscar-Nominated Actress Had a Surprisingly 'Witchy' Hobby at Home
Maya Hawke is offering a rare, affectionate look at life growing up with her mother, Uma Thurman.
It turns out it involved a lot more herbs, gardens, and homemade remedies than fans might expect.
In a recent conversation with NPR's Rachel Martin, Hawke, 27, described her mother's approach to wellness and nature as something she jokingly calls "witch-adjacent," blending intuition, gardening, and old-fashioned herbal know-how.
"It's not full-on witch," Hawke said with a laugh. "But it's not, you know, 'toil and trouble'' either… just light Wiccan-ry."
According to Hawke, the 56-year-old has long had a deep connection to nature and food grown from the earth. She recalled her mother spending time in gardens-often barefoot and hands-on-gathering ingredients for homemade remedies and meals.
One standout example was stinging nettles, which Thurman would harvest herself to make soup.
"She's a gorgeous gardener," Hawke said. "Most of the time I spent with my mother, she was barefoot in our garden on her knees, picking stinging nettles for soup."
The practice wasn't limited to soups, either.
Hawke said her mother often turned to natural remedies for everyday ailments, including making pineapple skin tea when someone had a cold. The idea, she explained, came from believing in the healing properties of whole ingredients and traditional methods passed down informally.
Hawke emphasized that while it might sound mystical, it was really just a grounded, hands-on way of living. Still, she admits there was always a playful sense of something just a little bit magical about it all.
"It's a witchiness," she said. "A love of nature and herbal remedies and different sorts of medicines for what ails you."
For Hawke, those memories now stand out as part of what made her upbringing feel unique. She's rooted in both city life and upstate New York, but always anchored by her mother's unconventional, nature-focused approach to everyday living.
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This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 9:00 PM.