Charlize Theron

Interview By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

If there was ever an actress that has exceeded so many expectations over the course of her career, it's Charlize Theron. Born in South Africa, Theron initially made her mark as a model.

As one, pursuing an acting career would be met with much greater skepticism in an industry where most models who make the crossover are relegated to 'pretty face' stereotype roles. But Charlize persisted and it wasn't long before she garnered roles in films like The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules.

Theron soon proved her skeptics had indeed been wrong when she garnered a Best Actress Oscar for her role as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, as well as an additional nomination in the category for her role in North Country. Now, once again, Theron continues to show there's far more to her than her statuesque model looks would have you suggest otherwise with a role as Ella in the film Battle in Seattle, a drama which re-enacts the 1999 event that involved 50,000 people protesting against the World Trade Organization.

Directing and screenwriting this movie is actor Stuart Townsend, who happens to also be dating the 33 year-old actress. But, as Charlize will tell you, she has been a longtime advocate of liberal causes and it didn't take her long to jump right on board her boyfriend's directorial debut, which focuses on the anti-globalization effort.

'Well, I got involved when Stuart started his research, which was a long, long time ago,' Theron recalls, 'But I remember him giving me Anita Roddick's book Take It Personally and I read that. And I started realizing, I think the first thing that hit me was that there was never really a mention of anything globalization prior to the Battle In Seattle. '

'Nobody ever mentioned that on television,' she adds, 'It was never spoke or written about. It was almost something that didn't exist and that that would happen in Seattle really changed that. I think a lot of people are going to feel that way. It's one of those things that very few people know about and people keep saying, God, I knew nothing about this. So that's why I'm really excited about this film.'

We asked Theron what the experience was like working with a first-time filmmaker, who also happens to be someone she is very close to.

'It's going to be a boring answer,' she replies, 'It's like working with any other first-time director and it has to be. Otherwise, then I'm just there screwing up his movie, so when you go to work, you go to work. And the good thing is we're both really passionate about what we do, so that's not hard, when we go, and when we're doing it, we're in it. But yeah, I think the only difference is that I stumbled a few times by calling him 'Baby' in front of his crew, which he really wasn't very pleased with. Like, 'Don't call me 'baby' in front of my crew.'

'I knew and I wasn't trying,' Charlize continues, 'But other than that, it's very hard for me to talk about it because I think people are automatically going to think I'm going to be biased, but I almost wish he wasn't my boyfriend because he's an incredible director. I would work with him in a heartbeat again, because I think he's incredibly talented'and then, he happens to be my boyfriend.'

In fact, Charlize did not mince words at all about how deeply dedicated Townsend was to the film.

'This project was absolute hell,' Theron blunty recalls, 'I don't think people will ever really understand. We all know independent filmmaking is hard and blah blah blah and blah blah blah, but it started with the amount of research that he had to do. The research on this was insane. We would go on vacation somewhere like Fiji and he would bring a suitcase of books on the WTO and what happened in Seattle and I was like, 'That's not sexy!' But he was so dedicated I think he, right off the bat, knew that if he was going to do it, he was going to have to do this as truthful as possible. Starting with the research, that was three years of his life, just reading, before he even wrote the script.'

'And then, he sits down and writes a script,' she continues, 'That, on its own, it's like I could never do that. He writes a script and it's really good, then he goes and finds financing for this. It's impossible. Literally, it's the most impossible thing. And the financing was barely through five days. I know a week before he was supposed to shoot, he was in Vancouver, he didn't even have a cast. It was like one of those things where it was like one impossible thing after another impossible thing. So this, he went through hell and back to make this film and I'm incredibly proud that he never once faltered or kind of gave up and said, you know what, I'm going to just do a romantic comedy. I'm really, really, really happy that he didn't.'

Charlize also insists that even if Townsend didn't happen to be her boyfriend, she was deeply confident in his newly-minted role as filmmaker.

'I'm always open, because the great thing about it is the surprise element,' she believes, 'There's no movie to look at. There's no, well, they've done this and this is their taste and this is what it's probably going to be around. There's always this amazing new element of surprise when you deal with a first-time director.'

'I guess it's having that complete trust and complete willingness to see where a filmmaker, especially a first-time filmmaker, is going to go, whether it's the vision or the emotional highs of the story, all of those things,' Theron adds, 'And when I say I didn't step in and go, hey, let me tell you something there, Mr. First-Time Director, it doesn't work that way. And he's an actor and he's lived on sets and he gets all that and it was really effortless.'

In Battle in Seattle, Theron plays a particularly impacting role, surprisingly not as among the 50,000 people that protested at the event, but as an innocent bystander that is accidentally caught in the ensuing fray whose experience that day proves to be just as intense. We asked the actress how she managed to bring that level of intensity to her character.

'You know, when you ask an actor their process, it's a little bit like asking a magician how does the rabbit appear out of the hat,' Charlize replies, 'I don't think people really want to know. I really believe that because, look, the truth is it's different for every actor and for me, it's different every single time. It's a different process, it's a different thing. I guess the only thing else is I don't work by just one set of rules.'

'I don't try and pull the same tricks out of the same hat,' she continues, 'I try to have it be sort of an organic thing. You know, a lot of times when I read a script, she starts to cry and you go into the set and you can't fucking cry. And then, you realize, wait a second, it's better because you don't need to cry. If the intent is there, then it works. So I try to keep the peripheral open to whatever's going to happen on the day.'

Another twist to Ella, Theron says, is the character's pregnancy and how Ella adds a fish out of water, everyman element to an otherwise politically-driven film.

'There's something very primal about carrying a belly even though there's nothing living in there, but carrying a belly and being in that surrounding,' she notes, 'That was something that I have to thank Stuart for because a lot of what an actor does is what a director gives them and he gave us the real deal.'

'I mean, those streets were filled with people and when you were trying to get through, you were being suffocated and that smoke was real,' Theron continues, 'Those police officers were really scary to be in front of. To have somebody kind of just violate you out of chaos that sometimes as an actor, you have to kind of step back and say, OK, let it happen, whatever it is.'

The film features an ensemble cast of veritable talent, including Outkast member Andre Benjamin, Woody Harrelson, Martin Henderson, Ray Liotta, Michelle Rodriguez, and Channing Tatum. Theron was quick to share with us how she felt working with some of her castmates.

'He's a sweetheart,' Charlize enthuses, on Woody Harrelson, 'He's just such a goofball, he's just such a kid. Sometimes, it makes you want to go, 'Focus! Where's your focus'!'

'He's a total diva on set,' she jokes, on Martin Henderson.

'He's so good. He's really good,' Theron gushes, on Ray Liotta.

We asked Theron if she feels the awareness of the anti-globalization movement has become more visible since the events that take place in Battle in Seattle.

'I think that for however successful you think what happened in Seattle in 1999, it has definitely put pressure on corporations to become more responsible,' she believes.

Aware of her already deep commitment to liberal causes, we also asked Charlize whether being a part of Battle in Seattle has solidified her will to engage in political activism.

'I've always been, but protesting is different, because you can be videotaped and you can be arrested. And when you've been arrested, it's harder to get citizenship,' Theron explains, 'But I've always. At the time I produced and financed a documentary on Cuba, I was considered unpatriotic here. But it was something that I've always been open with my politics. I don't feel like we should have the right to not want to talk about it if we don't want to and for me, it's never been an issue.'

'But I've always been very much about causes and very much about a lot of things,' she asked, 'I mean, I don't hide from that. But to stand at a protest is a little different and if you get arrested, that's not good when you try to become a citizen.'

We also asked the actress how she'd respond to the perceived wisdom in some circles of the country that she is not entitled to speak her political mind, not only because she's a public figure in the entertainment industry, but also the fact that she's not a natural-born citizen.

'This my home, whether the media likes it or not,' Charlize declares, 'And to say something that comes from a place of maybe questioning government and questioning policies, people kind of take it so as it's considered unpatriotic, that kind of means that you don't love the country and you should go back, something that I don't believe in.'

With the country in the midst of not only the biggest presidential election in recent memory, but a looming economic crisis on Wall Street, we asked Charlize if she felt both these events in tandem bode well for securing a potential audience for Battle in Seattle.

'I do think the election is going to help,' she believes, 'Now is the time when I think people do want to get some facts. It's all in how the media writes about it and how we all talk about it because it's like reprogramming the brain. As soon as you say anything political, like something a little bit too non-entertaining, you got to be this is a bad ass film, you know, and then, maybe, people will go and see it. But it's the truth.'

'People run away from anything that has some kind of political thing,' Theron adds, 'But hopefully, with the election in November, people will be a little bit hungry to maybe go, well, Obama and McCain are very, very different as far as trade is concerned, so maybe I should go see this film to understand what trade is about.'

As Charlize Theron continues to shatter the notion that she is merely a pretty face, her next move will continue a career that has thus far been so unpredictable that even she herself doesn't know what she plans to do next.'

'I haven't worked,' Charlize candidly admits, 'I did three days on The Road this year, which is coming out in November this year, so I'll be promoting that. And then, I have Guillermo Arriaga's film The Burning Plain, which is coming out that we co-produced. That was just in Venice and Toronto, coming out in December. So that's what's happening, I have no job. I'm unemployed.'