By Tim Nasson
Los Angeles – Academy Award winning South African actress Charlize Theron, now thirty-one, has come a long way from her motion picture debut, “Children Of The Corn III.”
“Everyone has to start somewhere,” she says, laughing, recently in Los Angeles – a town that has been very good to her.
Thankfully, the first time I met Theron, was for her work in the Best Picture Oscar nominee, “The Cider House Rules.”
Four years later, I sat with the actress twice – once for her role in “The Italian Job,” and later that year for her Oscar winning role in “Monster.”
Give Theron a lot of credit. She can go from glam to bland at the drop of a hat. “Actually, it’s not that easy,” she explains. “For ‘Monster,’ I needed to gain thirty pounds. It was not like I just let my hair get dirty and had a good makeup artist make me look ugly. The getting fat part was not fun. I had to walk around in that fat for a few months.”
However, she did it, Theron dropped the doughy figure she showcased in “Monster,” relatively quickly, just in time for her big-budget, action-packed Hollywood film, “Aeon Flux,” based on a popular video game.
“I love making movies that tell the true stories of people. They are quite challenging as an actress but also are a way to bring to life a character that has had an impact on the world in whatever way, good or bad, she says, referring, obviously, to her two Academy Award nominated performances – one playing the lesbian serial killer, Aileen Warnous, in “Monster,” who was sent to the death chamber for her crimes; and more recently, Josey Aimes in “North Country,” a character that challenged women’s rights in the workplace and became and international poster woman for that cause.
“But I also like to challenge myself physically,” adds Theron, speaking of her role as the title character in “Aeon Flux,” a film that takes place in the future.
In “Aeon Flux,” Theron gets to show off her sculptured body, modelesque face and action skills. In fact, production on “Aeon Flux” was shut down for over a month, causing the budget to rise, when Theron injured her neck during one of the hundreds of stunts she did on her own.
“If I couldn’t do my own stunts, for the most part,” Theron says, “what would have been the point of making the movie? At least for me, if I am going to agree to an action movie, it is because I want to take part in the action, even if there is a threat of injury.”
Famously, Charlize Theron was discovered by an agent while she was in line with her mother at an ATM machine in Hollywood. “He gave me his card and I thought nothing of it,” says Theron. “I put it in the glove compartment and didn’t look at it for a couple of days. And out of the blue, on a whim, I called the number. I guess there is such a thing as fate. What is meant to be is meant to be.”
Theron, as a child growing up in South Africa, took ballet lessons and performed in productions of “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker.”
“But movies were always my passion, even as a child. But I never in my wildest dreams, would have imagined that the label ‘Oscar winner’ would ever precede my name,” she laughs.
Well, it is no joke. Theron, who has been working in film steadily since 1995 – yes, since her debut in “Children Of The Corn III” – is starting production, soon, in Kimberly Peirce’s next film. (Kimberly Peirce, you’ll recall, is the woman who directed that other beauty-turned-homely, Hilary Swank, in her Oscar winning, “Boys Don’t Cry” role.)
“I am really excited about ‘The Ice At The Bottom of the World,'” says Theron, of the Kimberly Peirce movie. “But I am also proud to announce that I will be reprising my role in ‘The Italian Job’ sequel. I just can’t get away from those action films.”
Charlize Theron talks to Tim Nasson.
