Charlize Theron: ‘I like being outdoors’

IF THERE ARE two things that go together, it’s action movies and Charlize Theron. From the daring warrior in Mad Max: Fury Road to the cold and calculated Cipher in The Fate of the Furious, Theron will now be seen in her gritty role of an undercover M16 agent in Atomic Blonde. Set during the Cold War, Theron’s portrayal is raw and edgy. I catch up with her on the sets of Universal Studios:

We’ve always seen action roles reserved for male actors, but now, actresses such as you are being offered these parts. Is Hollywood changing?

Yes and no. It’s a complicated question because I’m aware that the first time I saw Sigourney Weaver in Alien, her character awoke me as a young girl. So, I feel that we have [changed], but we are not consistent. Some things happen and the audience responds to it and then we don’t make these films anymore. As soon as a film with a female lead doesn’t work, everything gets shut down and that is problematic. We lived in a society where, for a long time, we wanted to believe that women just didn’t like the genre and now it’s been proven, statistically, that women play video games and that we like genre films. The mindset is slowly changing.

What made you choose such a physically challenging role?

I don’t think I would dedicate as much time, effort and energy towards this if I didn’t see a real challenge. A lot of the challenge was the physical storytelling aspect. My history as a ballet dancer always kind of made me fascinated with the idea. And I knew the director [Dave Leitch] wanted to push the envelope. But with great ideas come the realisation of what that translates into. There were mornings when I couldn’t get out of my car. I had valet attendants waiting patiently for me to drag my body out of the car because my quads hurt so badly. But at some point, you get over that. You feel strong and capable and once you hit that place, it gives you the confidence to do more. In fact, we turned two scenes that were not action scenes into action sequences because of where I was.

What do you do to stay so physically fit?

I like being active. If you dread your workout regime and you absolutely hate it, you are never going to do it. You just won’t be consistent with it. So I try to do things that I really like. I like hiking. I like being outdoors. I’m somebody who likes to move and do things and be social and I like the physical push of things like power yoga and spinning— things that push me to the limit where I work through it mentally, than physically.

How did it feel punching, kicking and killing all the bad guys?

There’s something about training that hard. It’s not just physical. You’re releasing all those endorphins and the mental aspect of it is really amazing—to have a clear mind about movement and distance. I haven’t actually been in fights so I don’t know what the real version of it feels like, but this felt pretty good

You’re known to speak your mind. Not many in the industry do.

I just don’t know any better, so I can somewhat blame my mom for that. I was raised in a way that I don’t identify with gender as a negative thing, as something that would hold me back. And I’m super grateful for that. I grew up in a country (South Africa) where people lived with half-truths and whispers and lies and propaganda, and nobody said anything, and I think that influenced me as a teenager. Living in that environment made me realise that you have to speak up, you have to know that when this life is over, you’ve lived a certain amount of truth that you’re comfortable with. For me, it’s a tremendous amount. It feels like I have quality of life and nothing negative can come from that, because your truth is your truth and nobody can take that away from you.

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