Charlize Theron: Back and Better Than Ever
by scott huver
photography by tom munro
Unlike other movie stars who slip out of the spotlight for an extended period, there was no spectacular box-office flop, no public fall from grace, no stint in rehab. The lady in question was simply busy pursuing other kinds of creative endeavors. But—as the résumé of nearly 40 films, a mantel containing a slew of coveted acting trophies, and the stacks of high-glam magazine covers confirm—Charlize Theron remains a movie star, and she is back.
The actress, whose early career received attention more for her uncommon beauty and statuesque screen presence than for her increasingly compelling acting skills, is back on the big screen once again after a lengthy sabbatical. And now, on the brink of the release of Young Adult, her first major starring role since 2008, the actress’s uniquely upbeat-yet-laid-back demeanor suggests she’s glad to be back. “I’ve got to tell you, it’s probably the best experience I’ve ever had on a film,” she says of making Young Adult. “I had an amazing time.”
It was an experience that almost didn’t happen: When director Jason Reitman (reuniting with his Juno collaborator, screenwriter Diablo Cody) first pursued Theron for the lead role of Mavis Gary—a writer of young-adult novels whose arrested-development issues lead her back to her hometown in pursuit of her now-married high school flame (Patrick Wilson)—the actress had prior commitments and wasn’t available. Expecting to spend the better part of a year shooting director George Miller’s Mad Max reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road, in Australia, she couldn’t bring herself to even look at the script. “I said, ‘I don’t want to read anything,’” she says, “‘because I’ll be depressed and want to kill myself because I can’t do it.’” But when Mad Max: Fury Road’s long-gestating production hit a snag, Reitman circled back to find the actress had some time to spare and was therefore more receptive to his pitch.
“Prior to that, I didn’t work for three years,” says Theron. But by “work” she means in front of the camera, since she was in the throes of a different kind of creative endeavor: She launched a television arm of her production company, Denver & Delilah Films, developing a series with David Fincher called Mind Hunter (based on the book by John Douglas) for HBO, among other TV and feature projects currently in the pipeline. “I was really happy with the work we were developing,” she says. “It was a highly creative time in my life.”
She and Reitman huddled to hammer out a shared vision before she formally signed on. “It was definitely not from the first read that I went, ‘This is it!’” she says. “But that’s usually a good sign—I think the good ones in my career have felt that way.” Once director, star, and script were fully in accord, Theron returned to life in front of the camera. “It was nerve-wracking the first couple of weeks, and then we just kind of hit our flow. The whole thing was just a pleasure.”
Theron says Mavis, her character in Young Adult—a 37-year-old woman still clinging to the childish habits of her popular-girl past—“never really grew up. She went through life writing teen novels and never evolved. You can’t expect somebody who has that set of tools to go about life in any way better than the way she does.” But as real, relatable, and eminently flawed as Mavis seems, “I don’t relate to everything,” says Theron. “The way we go about things in our lives is very different. But at the core, I had empathy for how she went about it, which was sometimes brutal. She’s like this horrible car accident you can’t take your eyes off of. But I really loved the fact she’s a girl in her mid-thirties and [am interested in] the way the world looks at a girl that age who’s still single. But her tool set is very different from mine.”
For one thing, Theron never indulged in an arrested adolescence. “I grew up quickly,” she says, recalling leaving her parents’ South African farm to attend the School of Performing Arts in Johannesburg. “It doesn’t matter where you go to school, there’s always the popular girl, but we didn’t really have the prom queen and prom king, and all of that stuff. There were different pressures. I went to a pretty strict art school—it was really conservative. You had to get on your knees so the teachers could make sure your school uniform was below your knees. It was not as relaxed as I think schools are in America. I definitely grew up a lot faster than some of my friends did.”
After a now-fabled discovery that sounds almost perfectly scripted (a talent agent spotted the towering young Theron while she was quarreling with a bank teller during a visit to LA), the actress swiftly made a name for herself in Hollywood, culminating in her famously transformative, Oscar-winning turn playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s Monster. She followed that up with a string of trophy-worthy performances, and at this stage in her career, she embraces a sense of gratitude for the admittedly rare chances to dig as deep as she has. “You could have an outline of what you want your career to be, and if you don’t have the opportunities to really deliver on that, you’re stuck in the same place,” she says. “I’ve always been very, very aware of the fact I only have the career I have today because of the opportunities—first and foremost.”
And yet she gives her personal work ethic due credit. “There’s great tenacity when I tackle something, and I don’t half-ass anything. When I work, I work really, really hard. And I think that—combined with people who believe in me— has been really a great blessing,” says Theron. “You choose the life you want for yourself, and then you just shut up and go about it. That’s how I’ve lived my life.”
Post-Young Adult, Theron has gotten back to business with a vengeance. Next summer’s Prometheus is a sci-fi epic initially conceived by producer/director Ridley Scott as an Alien prequel before re-tweaking it as its own franchise- promising property. “I think every actor has that one iconic director who sets a genre he or she wants to work with, and for me that’s Ridley Scott,” says Theron. “When he called and asked if I wanted to do this, and he was willing to develop the role a little bit with me, I was really excited. I think people are going to be pleased with where he went with this. [Scott] is just one of those people [for whom] you go, ‘For sure, you are doing what you’re supposed to do on this earth.’”
Debuting almost simultaneously is Snow White & the Huntsman, which finds Theron playing The Evil Queen to Kristen Stewart’s dwarf-friendly fairy-tale heroine. “This has been a great sandbox to play in— huge sets and great costumes, and yet very grounded material,” she says, offering a tip of the crown to the inspiration behind her take on the beauty-obsessed monarch. “There was definitely something [about the character] that always reminded me of Jack Nicholson in The Shining. I played with the idea of that cabin fever, being stuck in a castle, and slowly losing your mind, your obsessions eating you up, and becoming capable of doing something you didn’t necessarily think you would be capable of.”
Even with such high-profile roles at hand (the Mad Max film is a go again, too), Theron still wonders about her career longevity now that she, too, is no longer a young adult. “I don’t know if I feel I’m here to stay,” she says, “but that’s a good thing. That keeps you on your toes. I think this is an industry where you can’t get too comfortable. It’s constantly churning with great talent, and you’ve got to raise the bar and try to push yourself. I don’t ever want to kind of feel, Yeah, I’m here. I made it. I think that would probably be the time to retire. I don’t ever want to get comfortable with anything.”
Source: LA Confidential
