Charlize Central

In case you didn’t get the memo, Charlize Theron is a serious actor now. No more pretty girlfriend parts. Only Oscar caliber dark dramas. She even produced her latest, Sleepwalking, so she could play a desperate single mother who abandons her daughter. Even this summer’s Hancock sounds intense. But she’s pretty so it’s cool.

Crave Online: How did you like your trashy wardrobe in the film?

Charlize Theron: I loved it. I loved it, yeah. It felt very comfortable and felt very real and yeah, there’s no denying putting that on and really feeling like you’re Joleen.

Crave Online: Do you know anyone that’s like Joleen?

Charlize Theron: I don’t personally, no, but you know I observe a lot of people. I observe those kinds of people I don’t know them personally but I’ve watched them.
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Sitting across from talented actresses Charlize Theron and teen Anna-Sophia Robb is like looking at the same person… past and future. The beautiful, blonde-haired, blue/green-eyed girls look very much like sisters but they play mom and daughter in the dark drama Sleepwalking which Charlize also produced. Both actresses have reps as hard-working professionals.

Anna, now 14, first caught our eye as a young girl befriending a stray dog in Because of Winn-Dixie. She was really annoying as the gum-popping gal in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, endearing as the doomed girl in Bridge to Terabithia and creepy in The Reaping. Charlize has a wonderful career playing everything from a future, butt-kicking heroine in Aeon Flux to a bank robber driving a Mini-Cooper opposite Matt Damon and gang. And, she won the Oscar as a mankiller in Monster.

The duo met with us in Beverly Hills recently to talk about working in Sleepwalking in which Anna-Sophia plays a runaway and Charlize her irresponsible, down-on-her-luck mom. Picture Anna-Sophia wearing a cute off-white, silk print dress with brown and turquoise flowers. Charlize was in a black, sleeveless top with button decorations on it, big silver hoop earrings and pants. They dig into each other’s necks to check the designer labels when I ask who they are wearing and come up with “Porridge” for Anna and something like “Mark and Chris” for Charlize.
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Obviously, Charlize Theron the actress needs no introduction. But Charlize Theron the producer — who has, in a brief period of time, helped create some extremely serious-minded low-budget films — feels in many ways like a unique individual, distinct from her more glamorous alter ego. The evidence is on display in Sleepwalking, a stark indie film about a troubled mother (Theron) who abandons her young daughter (AnnaSophia Robb) in the care of her younger brother (Nick Stahl). What’s most amazing about the film is that much of the heavy lifting is done by the young Robb, familiar to audiences from more kid-friendly fare like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We caught up with Theron and Robb, now 14, on a recent visit to New York.
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I, along with three other journalists, had the opportunity to interview actors Charlize Theron and Nick Stahl, who star in the upcoming overture film “Sleepwalking,” which Theron produced as well.

The interview took place at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco on March 3, 2008.

Academy Award winner Theron, who won in 2004 for Best Actress for her role as female serial killer Aileen Wuornos in “Monster,” has portrayed her talent in a wide variety of performances ranging from comedy to action to epic-drama.

Her movie credits also include: “The Devil’s Advocate,” “The Cider House Rules,” “Sweet November” and “The Italian Job.”

Her co-star Nick Stahl can be remembered from the HBO series “Carnivale” and his roles in “Sin City” and “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.”
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JustJared has posted some gorgeous photos and links to Charlize’s interview with David Letterman from yesterday. If you can’t see the videos below, click here for part 1 and here for part 2 of the interview. I’ll do my best to get some photos added to the gallery by the weekend.

Don’t be fooled by the serious subject matter of Charlize Theron’s latest flick, “Sleepwalking.” The statuesque star of “Monster” and “The Italian Job” likes to laugh, as you’ll see in the conversation below.

MTV News caught up with the Oscar winner while she was promoting the film in which she co-stars alongside Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb and Dennis Hopper. Theron also produced the movie, a look at a trio of characters (Theron, Stahl and Robb) who must confront their lineage (in the form of a disturbing Hopper) and accept responsibility for the actions they take. (Here’s our review of “Sleepwalking” after its Sundance screening.)
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Charlize Theron is a former model, dancer and, of course, Oscar winner. While she has appeared in some funny stuff - a recurring guest stint on television’s Arrested Development, as well as providing a voice in the cult hit Robot Chicken - she has increasingly been drawn to darker roles. She won her Oscar for Monster, after all, in which she played a serial killer. She both stars in and is a producer of Sleepwalking, opening Friday, in which she plays a troubled mother who abandons her 11-year-old daughter (AnnaSophia Robb), leaving her in the care of her struggling brother (Nick Stahl). Theron spoke recently about the film, her choices and her work.
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Oscar®-winning actress Charlize Theron is on a mission to live life to the fullest. In an interview with Vogue magazine, the reporter described her as an “unrepented pleasure-seeker”. “I think my motto is always, ‘We don’t know what happens after this,’” she says. “This is the shot we get. So I don’t want to lie in my deathbed someday and say, ‘I should have done that.’”

The actress and producer is now finding happiness through her passion for helping others. She has teamed up with Oprah’s Angel Network to make a difference for people in her home country of South Africa.

For thousands of teenagers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, HIV education and treatment is unavailable or too expensive. According to experts, this village has the highest HIV infection rate in South Africa. Nearly half of all females in KwaZulu-Natal will contract HIV during their lifetime.

With the help of Charlize and Oprah’s Angel Network, a program called Mpilonhle—meaning, “a good life”—has been created to bring free HIV education and treatment directly to schools. The program provides a mobile health unit that travels between four remote high schools. Each month, the mobile clinic brings lifesaving tests and treatments to thousands of students.
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The Overture Films drama Sleepwalking is a moving story about the deep familial bond that develops between a 30-year-old man and his young niece, after the girl’s mother suddenly leaves town. Forced out of her home after her boyfriend is arrested, Joleen Reedy (Academy Award winner Charlize Theron) needs a place to stay with her 11-year-old daughter, Tara (AnnaSophia Robb). She turns to her younger brother James (Nick Stahl) for help, and he doesn’t hesitate to welcome them into his modest rental apartment. Almost as soon as she moves in, Joleen hits the road with another man, leaving James as the sole guardian of an adolescent girl. Before long, things spin out of control, and he loses his job, gets kicked out of his apartment and Tara is put into foster care. Deciding to take off with Tara and assume new identities as father and daughter, James faces his demons and, for the first time, finds a true purpose in life.

Also a producer on the film, Charlize Theron, along with her young co-star, AnnaSophia Robb, spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about making an independent film with such a heavy, realistic subject matter.
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Charlize Theron was at the Smith Rafael Film Center on Sunday night to promote “Sleepwalking,” a low-budget independent movie she produced and in which stars.

“Sleepwalking” was shown for California Film Institute members, followed by a Q&A session with Theron and co-star Nick Stahl.

She made it clear that this is “a passion project” for her, so she has to be disappointed with the lousy reviews so far.

After its recent showing at Sundance, the MTV Movie Blog called it “the Super Bowl of good performance/bad movie movies.”
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