Charlize Theron
is perhaps the world's most beautiful Plain Jane.
Ever since the model turned actress demanded Tinsletown's
attention in otherwise avoidable films like '2 Days in the
Valley' and 'The Astronaut's Wife' (as well as her early career
hit, 'The Devil's Advocate'), the South Africa native has made
an award-winning career of playing down her looks.
The most obvious example, of course, is 2003's 'Monster.'
Unrecognizable as murderous prostitute Aileen Wuornos, Theron
turned her trick into Oscar gold, winning Best Actress. She was
up for a statue again for another unglamorous turn, as a
sexually harassed factory worker in 'North Country,' and now she
plays a deeply troubled promiscuous woman in 'The Burning
Plain,' directed by '21 Grams' and 'Babel' scribe Guillermo
Arriaga. We hit Theron with some 'Burning' questions --
including whether or not she's sticking to her vow to not marry
her boyfriend of eight years, actor Stuart Townsend, until gays
are granted the same right.
Do all these incredibly tortured characters you play ever
wear on you emotionally?
No, they don't. I love what I do, and I am not a tortured artist.
I didn't necessarily start out that way, but I've kind of
learned over the years the things that are important to me. I
love my job but I also love my life. I started doing really good
work that I was really happy with and not torturing myself and
everyone around me. I became very disciplined about my work, and
I think it made me a better actor. It's exhausting to be
depressed and f***ing heavy, and I find that when I'm exhausted,
my work suffers. So I think I'm better when I don't do that
method stuff, and I get good sleep, and my boyfriend doesn't
hate my guts, and I can have a nice weekend or a nice evening
and then go to work and really go to the dark place, switch it
on and do it.
So it never gets to the point where you're like, "Man, I need
a romantic comedy with Matthew McConaughey"?
[Laughs] I would love to do comedy. But whether it's comedy or
another genre, [it's about] just wanting to do work that really
matters to me. I think there's definitely a facet of that genre
that I haven't dove into, and there's definitely a part of me
that maybe wants to put a little bit more effort towards that.
But at the same time, when you work on things that you like and
you're proud of, the creative experience is pretty good.
How did you relate to your 'Burning Plain' character, Sylvia?
We're both women [laughs]. I relate to the idea of guilt. I
think a lot of women do. And having to get out of that place of
guilt. It's in our nature to do that guilty thing, it's what
nurturers do. I think I have complete empathy for her. I don't
relate to her, but I have complete empathy for her desire to not
feel and for her desire to escape. So I'm pretty fascinated by
people who do that and by what it means to do that.
How much did Guillermo Arriaga's track record as writer of 'Amores
Perros' and '21 Grams' play into your taking on this project?
A lot. I think a lot of times making a decision has a lot to do
with taste. I like his taste. He's an extraordinary talent, so I
was really excited about the prospect of working with him. But
of course, the material is just as important. Something told me
that the material would be really good, and it was. And meeting
him, you can be a fan of somebody's, but if you don't have the
right chemistry, then it's not going to work, and the two of us
just really hit it off right off the bat.
Did it help that 'Burning Plain' wasn't as bleak as his other
works?
Yeah, because I think Guillermo really comes from an amazing
place of hope, and his life kind of reflects on that too. I
think his interpretation of his work is going to be different
than how [director Alejandro González Iñárritu] interprets it.
I'm not making a judgment from one to another, I don't know
Iñárritu, but I know Guillermo and I know that Guillermo
believes in hope. Guillermo is not somebody who believes in
endless hopelessness and darkness. That's not Guillermo.
You don't share the screen with co-star Kim Basinger, but as
a producer on the film, you did get to meet her. What was your
impression of her?
She's amazing. I met her on the set a couple of times. For me
she was really the first choice and the only choice to play this
role. There really was no other actress for me at that age range
who had access to the vulnerability that that character needed
than Kim. So I was super, super excited to have her on this
film, and when I met her she was absolutely lovely. Really just
a pro. I have nothing but amazing things to say about her.
Is there ever any hesitation on your part to do nudity for a
film?
I don't really think about it that way. I ... read it, and it
makes sense or it doesn't. That's the end of the story. I treat
it the same way as I would any other scene. "Would it make sense
for me to do this moment?" is how I look at it, whether it's a
nude moment or sitting at a bar drinking. It's all choices, so
you have to make the choices. I don't think about it as nudity,
I think about it as, "Is this the right thing for the character?
Is this the right choice?"
You're also coming out in 'The Road' this fall, which people
are very excited about after the last adaptation of a Cormac
McCarthy book, 'No Country for Old Men,' cleaned up. What can
people expect?
It's great. It's really, really great. I only worked on it for
three days, so I have more of an outside perspective. It's a
really amazing film, John Hillcoat did an amazing job creating
that Cormac world, Viggo Mortensen is incredible, the little boy
[Kodi Smit-McPhee], who's such a find, I mean this kid is going
to be a massive, massive actor. The movie is really, really
incredible.
As a native of South Africa, what did you think of 'District
9'?
I thought it was brilliant. I thought [director Neill Blomkamp]
was incredibly smart. I think there's an undertone of the whole
segregation thing that he was doing that was very evident, and
you could kind of travel that everywhere. If you knew nothing
about South Africa but you knew about apartheid, the movie would
make sense to you, and it still crosses borders, it's such an
international thing. But for me personally, being a South
African, there were a lot of little moments in there that were
very nuanced of our history, that a lot of people might not have
gotten, but you don't have to [get them to] enjoy the film ...
So I really applaud this guy, I thought he did an incredible
job. Putting all of that aside -- the storytelling, amazing.
Absolutely amazing.
You're from South Africa but are now an American citizen. Do
you call yourself an African-American?
[Laughs] No, I don't. I have dual citizenship. I don't really
call myself anything. And I don't really think of myself ...
when I'm in South Africa, I feel at home and when I'm in America
I feel at home. But guess what, when I go to Italy I feel at
home, when I go to France I feel at home. I know a lot of people
say that and it's such a cliché, but I do. I feel at home in a
lot of places. I'm very lucky to live here, and I'm very proud
to be a South African. But I do feel a bit like Lassie.
You're a big advocate of gay rights and gay marriage. Do you
think that movement is starting to make headway?
I do. It's going to be a relentless movement, and I hope it's a
relentless movement, because I think that's the only way it's
going to happen. Being relentless is a sense of showing the rest
of the world a new face of family, what family is. It's
Blomkamp's film ['District 9']; it's segregation, that's what it
is. If Christians were being attacked the same way, or
heterosexual couples were being attacked the same way, I would
be fighting for them. I worry when we start to take away the
quality of certain people's lives based on religion and based on
very personal beliefs. These are not universal beliefs, and when
human life suffers from that, that worries me. Because that can
very easily get flipped on any of us.
You've said that you and Stuart won't marry until gays are
also granted the right to marriage. Are you planning to stick to
that?
I do. I think if we ever have children, I would want my children
to look at that as an example of choice and how important that
is to live your life and not just talk, because talk is cheap.
But to live your life in a way that really speaks volumes to
what you believe in. I've already once lived in a country where
certain people got certain things and certain people didn't, and
I refuse to live in another country that does that. I will not
take part in a ceremony that right now is not available to
everybody.
Are you still in talks for the lead in 'Atlas Shrugged'?
It's a project that is with my company right now-- and we're in
very, very early stages of development. So we're still in the
talky parts of it.
There's a rumor floating around that you're interested in
playing Catwoman in the next Batman movie. Is that true?
No. Wow. No, I did not hear that. News to me, but that's kick-ass
news. I like that ... I think that what has happened to that
franchise is amazing, and Chris Nolan is a genius. So I would be
an idiot to not consider that.
And of course there's also an 'Arrested Development' movie on
the horizon. Is that something you'd participate in if you got
the invite?
If I got the invite and it made sense, definitely. I love those
guys, and I have them on such a high pedestal. So if I get an
invitation to the party, I would always consider that -- that
would be freaking amazing. If it made sense, which I doubt it
would [laughs]. I don't think there's going to be room for Rita.