In her new drama The Burning Plain, gorgeous, Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron plays Sylvia, a seemingly cool, professional woman with a decidedly dark side. She is forced to face the horrible event in her distant past that set her on a life-path to torturous self-hate and the kind of deep guilt that no amount of dues-paying can erase.
Guillermo’s greatness
Written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga who wrote the acclaimed and touching Amores Perros and the gritty 21 Grams, The Burning Plain uses the diverse vistas of the Pacific Northwest and the desert Southwest to help visualize and explore the many landscapes inside the female heart.
His story packs a punch and at the film’s emotional core is Charlize’s multi-faceted performance. She is also one of the film’s executive producers.
Of his star Arriaga says “she has impeccable taste as an actress. She can tell a story without doing overacting or with mannerisms. Just with her face she can tell the background. There’s a story, a past in her. She has a lot of inner life which I was blessed to have in the film”.
The tall, ex-model has the enviable ability to look like a Hollywood red-carpet glamazon and still “ugly up” for roles like Aileen Wuornos; her Oscar-winning, character-driven performance in Monster. In Beverly Hills, SheKnows was able to talk candidly and personally with the down-to-earth actress who, we noted, could still turn heads wearing zero jewelry, only minimal make-up and a feminine black quarter-sleeved, drape neck dress with a small white flower pattern.
SheKnows: Charlize, why did you want to make this film?
Charlize Theron: Guillermo (Arriaga). (I’m a) massive fan, obviously, of his writing and when he called and said ‘I’d like you to read this and I’d like for you to play Sylvia’, there was an instant excitement because I feel like his voice is authentic and what I like so the script didn’t disappoint. Then I thought, ‘I’m probably gonna meet him and he’s gonna be a real a**hole’ (we laugh). And, then we met and he wasn’t an a**hole. He was just really clear on what he wanted to do with this. He really believed that the success of trying to make a good film is chemistry and I felt like we had the right chemistry; that we would take each other’s hand and jump off the cliff and really set out to try and make the same movie.
Charlize’s choices
SheKnows: Has your process of choosing a role changed since you first started acting?
Charlize Theron: Look, when I started I was ready to pay my dues. By no means did I think I was going to just walk in and do challenging work. I think, in the beginning, there was a part of me that knew there were going to be a few frustrating years and that’s what you do. You get yourself out there and you work hard and you hope that word of mouth kind of carries and one day somebody will actually step up to the plate and say ‘I believe that you can do this’. I was very, very lucky. I was incredibly blessed. The first film that I did Two Days in the Valley was an incredibly creative experience. By no means can I say it was just a job. I feel like there were a couple of years there where I kind of had to hold out a little bit. People kind of accepted me in that role of the femme fatale so there was a lot of ‘we want you to do exactly what you did in Two Days in the Valley’. So, it was, I think, a conscious effort on my part to kind of hold back and I didn’t work for a couple of years and I waited and really fought for roles like The Devil’s Advocate and The Yards and Cider House Rules.
SheKnows: So, it wasn’t always a piece of cake for you to change the initial image once your career started?
Charlize Theron: Oh, I went in and screen-tested and flew myself out and stalked and almost went to prison and didn’t wash my hair to kind of break this idea of what people thought of me but I think I was very lucky. I was very blessed. I got to work on very good material and I look at my career and how I’m doing it now and I feel like there is something authentic in that process that I still try not to over manipulate. When I feel something, I try to listen to that.
SheKnows: Whoa, back up. Why did you almost go to prison?
Charlize Theron: That was a joke!. No I actually did go to prison. I was deported when I was making The Devil’s Advocate but that’s another story. That’s going to be for my book one day (laughs).
Seeking Sylvia
SheKnows: What was the process you went through developing the Sylvia character?
Charlize Theron: I can’t really talk about it because it’s really hard for me to articulate it. My process is a bit of everything. I think I’ve learned, over the years, that you don’t really have the luxury of relying on just one way of doing it. So, for me, if I’m emotionally tapping into something and I feel like I have a great partner, I feel like they’re gonna be truthful and direct me. I rely on a lot of things and you have to because, some days it’s 16-hour days and thinking about your own drama and your own life might affect you. I think acting is really fully adapting to your surroundings, to your emotions, to the people that you’re working with, to being tired, to wanting to go home, to being lonely, to being happy. It’s adapting. For me, it is anyway — and trusting — adapting and trusting. That’s my format right there.
SheKnows: Young Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Sylvia as a teen, is just great. As a producer on the film, I assume you had to approve the casting. How did you decide on her for the role?
Charlize Theron: Guillermo and I talked about this a lot. The first day of casting, he called me and said ‘I found her’. I said ‘all right, calm down. Very happy for you but you have to have three weeks of casting’ and he was like ‘no, no, no! I’ve found her’. And, he sent me a tape and I’ve never been that blown away by an audition like that. I mean never, in my life, have I ever given an audition like that. So, I think this movie was really blessed. We got surrounded by really good people. We got the cast that we really wanted from day one so he carries good karma with him and his writing’s okay (laughter).
”I like conflicted women”
SheKnows: Charlize, you tend to go toward the darker roles, the very character-driven roles. Do you want to lighten up any time soon? Is there a romantic comedy in your future?
Charlize Theron: I don’t really think of them as dark roles. Obviously, I like conflicted women because I feel like we get so little of that. I guess I like picking people up at kind of a crossroads. You find my characters at a place where they could make a choice that could work out okay for them or it’s really gonna be not good. But, sure. My God, I think every director that works with me always comments on the fact that it is quite ironic that I haven’t done comedy because there is zero drama about me. I think the sense of humor is a very personal thing and I don’t know if I am talented enough to do romantic comedies.
SheKnows: Really?
Charlize Theron: I don’t think I could do them the justice that a lot of other really great actresses who ‘get’ that genre (could do). I don’t know if my comedic skills and timing would be good for that. But I do know that I love what the Coen Brothers do. I love that kind of character wit; what Gus Van Sant does with comedy, that kind of character-driven (stuff). But, yeah, I would love to do something like that. Spread the word.
SheKnows: A serious question now. Sylvia, both teen version and grown-up, has moments where she is cutting (self-mutilating) or putting her hand into fire. Cutting, unfortunately, is a behavior that many young women take up. Did you research this or have a comment on it?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, I have a real fascination with addiction and I think addiction is coping. So I think the kind of survival mechanisms that we use as humans to cope and survive boils down to some of the ugly things we don’t necessarily want to look at, which is self-mutilation or addiction. I think that’s probably what I could have done with my life if I wasn’t an actor because that kind of human observation is something that fascinates me. Just something that has to do with the study of coping with those kind of addictions So, I’ve read a lot of books on it and I’ve spent a lot of time wanting to understand that more.
How close to home?
SheKnows: You don’t have personal experience with it?
Charlize Theron: I’ve never been a cutter or ever been addicted to anything, but I’ve met people and I’ve been around it. I grew up in a house with addiction and I think that grief and pain and survival, just being somebody who’s alive and having to cope with guilt, really comes from wanting to numb and I think that’s what self-mutilating is and that’s also what sex addiction is. I’ve personally met a lot of parents actually who’ve lost children and sex addiction becomes very prevalent and they tend to split up. They tend to actually break up because one would actually cheat on the other one. But, that’s really not about the sex. When we have sex, we chemically change. I mean, things actually happen to our body and to our brain that chemically changes us, and so it is like shooting heroin or having a drink. It’s a chemical reaction and cutting is the same thing. The endorphins that actually hit your brain from feeling pain change you. And so, it’s a need, I think, at the end of the day, the common need is to not feel, just to have one moment of not feeling.
SheKnows: You’ve now successfully segued into the role of executive producer on a couple of films. How is that working for you? Have you decided what you like and don’t like about it?
Charlize Theron: You know, I think at the end of the day I don’t really compartmentalize the job too much. From the first day I walked onto a set, there has always been a fascination that I’ve had with making a film and I think that’s just kind of grown and I feel really lucky that I’ve worked with producers who’ve always encouraged that and some of them have become great mentors to me and are great friends.
SheKnows: Something about it must attract you though.
Charlize Theron: There’s something about that circus life that I really love and there’s also a business side of me that is really fascinated with how this industry really functions and survives as a business and how you can, as efficiently as possible, make a film. But, you know, once I’m on set, I’ll make (my own) sandwich, like I don’t care. I think that’s kind of the environment that filmmaking needs to be, for me anyway. You know, everybody’s in the same boat, man. And, at the end of the day, you’re just trying to do whatever you need to do or can do to make the best film that you possibly can, you know. That’s about it. And then, knock on wood.
Source: She Knows
