Uncovering Charlize Theron

She is, as Glamour magazine writer Skip Hollandsworth aptly pointed out, “fiercely intelligent” and “gloriously opinionated,” somebody we locals love to describe as “beauty and brains,” and, again to quote Hollandsworth, “an actress who refuses to be shallow, on-screen or off.”

I saw that for myself when I did a one-on-one with Charlize Theron during the Hollywood junket for Hancock in New York mid-June. Produced by Columbia Pictures (and directed by Peter Berg, an actor in his own right), Hancock (now showing nationwide) stars in the title role Will Smith with whom Theron first worked in The Legend of Bagger Vance in 2000.

Looking at me with piercing hazel eyes and brushing her shoulder-length blonde hair away from her lovely face, Theron would tackle your questions not in mono-syllables like most blondes would but in long, elaborate sentences, firm and sure of her “gloriously opinionated” answers.

Could it be because Theron, 32, grew up in South Africa under apartheid? Maybe.

My brief encounter with Theron was not the right occasion for me to ask personal questions such as what really happened during her teenage years when her mother Gerda shot and killed Theron’s father Charles who was reported to be “abusive and drunken,” and for which incident Theron’s mother was never charged because authorities ruled that she acted in self-defense.

But writer Hollandsworth did ask Theron that ticklish question after pointing out to her that she mentioned her father to a teenaged audience during a trip to South Africa to endorse a mobile HIV treatment and education.

Theron quote-unquote: “These kids deal with death every day. Many of them do not have one or both parents, and I thought (talking about my father) was a way for me to say, ‘Whether you have one parent or zero parents, you can turn that negative into a positive,” adding (in answer to the question of how she turned the negative in her life into a positive)...”My father had a horrible disease. He was an alcoholic. I could have been one of those adults who go through life not taking responsibility and saying, ‘I didn’t have a (good) example (of a father).’ But I actually had the best example. I had the example of what not to do. It was up to me to choose a life and to live that life.”

And what a life and career Theron is having!

At 16, she left South Africa to work as a model in Milan, a job that was never to her liking. So she went to New York to study dance at the Joffrey Ballet School, a career aborted when she broke her knees. Next stop: Los Angeles. After she was discovered while cashing a check at a bank, the 5’10" stunner was never the same again.

Her leading men are A-listers: Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in The Devil’s Advocate (and also with Reeves in Sweet November); Bill Paxton in Mighty Joe Young; Johnny Depp in The Astronaut’s Wife; Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding Jr. in Men of Honor; Ben Affleck in Reindeer Games; Dan Aykroyd in (again) Woody Allen’s Curse of the Jade Scorpion; Patrick Swayze and Billy Bob Thornton in Waking Up in Reno; Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix and James Cann in The Yards; and now, again with Will Smith.

It’s your second time around with Will Smith. How was it working with him?

“Oh, great! You know, I think both of us wanted an opportunity where we could really work. We didn’t get to work that much on that film (Bagger Vance). I think we got to work on only two or three scenes together and we both really appreciated each work and we wanted to explore that element more, something we were not able to do on that film. But we did have a lot of time on that film and we got a lot of time to know each other. It also made us realize that we wanted to do it again so when this opportunity showed itself, we grabbed it.”

Is Smith as funny off screen as he is on screen?

“He’s actually not funny at all. (Laughs) He’s incredibly funny! He has good comedic timing and I think he has a real love for people and he enjoys entertaining people, being funny, and when he works he’s really, really focused. He’s great to be around. He’s got great, good energy and he’s good at rounding people up, in getting everybody going.”

You portray varied characters — a serial killer in Monster for which she won awards, a coal miner in North Country, as the mentally-challenged girlfriend in the HBO series Arrested Development with Jason Bateman who plays her husband in Hancock, etc. Heavy roles. How much do you draw from experience in playing your roles?

“How much am I personal? I think to be credible as an actor you have to use as many things as you possibly can. What I thought might be effective the day before might not be effective the next day. I think you must have access to many different styles of working. Your style of working differs with the kind of people you are working with. I do draw from my personal experience when necessary but oftentimes, it comes mostly from imagination and the willingness to observe and to try to recreate the character as authentically as possible.”

You’re noted for submerging yourself in a role. How far would you go to make your portrayal as realistic as possible? (Charlize gained 30 pounds for her role in Monster.)

“I just try to do my job; I’m not a method actor at all. I think actors find the method that works for them. You know, when I was starting out I wasn’t a trained actor; I really didn’t know what the process was. Being an actor, you learn on the job and it does help if you read books about (Marlon) Brando and (James) Dean and all these guys who came from the ‘method’ process. You have to find the process that works best for you. ‘Method’ did not work for me; it robbed me of my life. I really like my life. I didn’t like the idea of isolating people and ‘living’ your role. I mean, I don’t think you have to be a heroin addict to be credible in the role of a heroin addict. I don’t want actors to think that they have to be self-destructive in order to deliver a good work. It’s enough that you have a good love of people and you have a love for life and a desire to understand what people struggle with. If you are willing to look at life as honestly as possible, I think out of that compassion you could really deliver a really good work.”

Hancock is about a superhero. Do you have superheroes in real life, people you look up to as role models?

“My mom. She’s a really strong woman who has a great imprint on me and she definitely inspires me. My mom is incredibly smart and, as I’ve said, unarguably inspiring. She encouraged me to explore and to be what I really wanted for myself.”

Any other superheroes?

“You know, I’m just like everybody else; I’m inspired by great leaders like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and, right now, Barack Obama. I think I’m very much intrigued by people who can not only speak of change but inspire change. I feel like I’m surrounded by superheroes as far as my friends are concerned. I’ve been very fortunate enough to surround myself with very good, important people who are very inspiring and who are very much my superheroes.”

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