With her stunning good looks, it would be easy for Charlize Theron to do fluffy romantic comedies in which she plays a bubbly heroine looking for love. But the South African native, who currently lives in Los Angeles, usually portrays flawed women who may not always be likable but are always fascinating to watch. She won an Oscar for playing real-life serial killer Aileen Wournos in the 2003 biopic “Monster.� In “Sleepwalking,� she plays a working-class single mom named Joleen Reedy who moves in with her brother James (Nick Stahl) and then abandons her daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) for James to raise by himself. Theron, 32, not only stars in “Sleepwalking� but also produced the movie, and she recently sat down with myLifetime.com to chat about tackling Hollywood in front of and behind the camera.

Do you read scripts as an actress first, a producer first, or both?
I don’t really compartmentalize the two. You don’t read something and go, “I love this. I’m going to produce it.� [Producing] is a much longer process than saying “yes� to an acting role and then two months later you’re on the set doing it … Development is really a fancy word for basically saying, “We’re praying and hoping.� But there’s a lot of stuff that goes through that development process. This industry is changing nonstop in terms of financing aspects of independent filmmaking. You’re always meeting with financing entities and you’re always letting them know what you have. They look at it, and if they’re interested they might step in if you get lucky.

And then for me, another element of that is the cast. I don’t want to just make a film … I want to work with people I really want to work with. And so I love “Sleepwalking,� but it took us a year-and-a-half to two years to get a financier on board and step up with the money that we needed. Nick [Stahl] came on, which was great, but I knew this story was going to work with the dynamic of Tara and [James]. We needed to get a young girl who could emotionally carry the same amount of weight, and that’s tricky. It’s heavy material for a child, and you can’t pretend your way through it. So when AnnaSophia came and played with us for day, that’s when I fully committed to it, because I knew we had the money and I knew we had the cast to pull it off.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned when you’ve done a movie as both an actress and producer?
The first movie [I] produced was “Monster,� and that was a really incredible experience, so it set the bar really high. But the one thing I walked away from in that experience that I really wanted again was this incredible partnership and collaboration where you don’t feel like you’re shooting a film. You just feel like you’re documenting. And that was how “Monster� felt, and that was how [“Sleepwalking�] felt. And I think that’s what makes it not compartmentalized for me … It’s a creative process. All we’re doing all day long is discussing and debating who these people are and what the world is and how to make it authentic … That’s really how I enjoy making films, and I hope to continue doing that.

Do you have an affinity for characters with tough and grim backgrounds?
I have a real obsession with human behavior. I love reading about it. I love observing it. I like asking questions about it. I’m fascinated by how we function as human beings. I think all actors secretly have that. It’s fascinating for us to go and try and find the empathy, the authenticity and flaws of that person, and the beauty and the hope. It’s a great gift.

How did it affect you to play a woman who abandons her child?
Our society is very unforgiving and should be, but at the same time, the movie shows … a woman who’s very insecure and feels like the only thing she really has to give is what she has physically … There are these little moments [in “Sleepwalking�] that give you an indication that something’s not quite right with [this character].

Dennis Hopper plays your abusive father in “Sleepwalking.� What went into deciding that he should get this role?
I feel incredibly blessed because when I read [scripts], I do imagine faces and actors who would be really brilliant in certain roles … There was an incredible amount of charisma that this guy needed to have. I think of those kind [of actors who play] really conflicted [characters], you just don’t know what you’re going to get, but they’re so charming that you want to hug them but you’re kind of scared — Dennis Hopper just comes to mind. He’s so good at doing that. I got the dream cast I really hoped for.

As a producer, it’s always a little bit tricky, because you want to work with the people you really feel are right for the role and will inspire you …and the same time financiers want to have some kind of guarantee. In our business today, there’s this idea that some actors are more bankable or more of a box-office draw than others. It’s a very tricky thing as a producer to find that medium where you can get the right guy for the right draw instead of just getting a guy because they’re kind of hot at the moment. It’s too much work for me not to do it with the people I really, truly believe are right for the role.