Charlize Theron "From Monster to Miner"

here is no doubt Charlize Theron is one of God's beautiful creatures, but one thing Charlize has taught us all is that beauty is only skin deep. In 2003 she transformed herself into Aileen Wournos for Monster, a woman far from the glamorous end of the spectrum, and the performance proved she had acting chops as it earned her her first Oscar nomination and in turn an Oscar win.

Now, in 2005, she has teamed with acclaimed director Niki Caro (Whale Rider) for North Country and turned in yet another performance that steers clear of any focus on her beauty, rather her ability to tap into the emotional center of our brains.

Playing Josey Aimes, a woman at the center of the landmark class action case that brought sexual harassment in the workplace to the forefront, Charlize once again delivers on every level. Lucky for us, she took the time to sit down with me to talk more about her role in North Country, her upcoming actioner Aeon Flux, her relationship with Stuart Townsend, children and more.

Question: Where are you going to put the second Oscar?

Charlize: Oh stop.

Question: Is this redemption after your first Oscar win? Meaning do you think there is actually an "Oscar Curse?"

Charlize: I don't really think of it that way. I am really drawn to directors and the only thing I can say is that I was really fortunate to be able to stalk the director that I wanted to work with and that she gave me a job that was really it. I think it would be incredibly selfish to even think about what I went through with Monster ever again in my career. You guys know, I love my drama. So when I read this, I was all over it.

Question: Do you feel like you have really proven yourself now?

Charlize: I'm incredibly proud of my career, I'm proud of my choices. It wasn't an easy journey, but I wouldn't want it any other way, I really wouldn't. I like things hard, I like to fight for things, I like things to be a challenge. I think it would have been a real let down if I had shown up and everybody kind of just gave me great parts and said, 'Here, you're fabulous.' There's something to be said that you went and accomplished something and of course I am proud of that.

Question: This is a story that involves sexual harassment and there are the obvious "casting couch" stories. Were you ever approached with the "casting couch" scenario?

Charlize: The only thing, a very well known director actually, and this was before I ever did anything. This was when I just got here, I didn't have a manager or an agent or anything and I told my modeling agent that I was going to try the acting thing and if they heard of any small parts to let me know and they called me and they said they were casting for some extras in this film, big action film. They said you have to go to the director's house on Saturday night at nine. Now I had never been on an audition in my entire life so I thought that maybe that's what they do, I mean what do I know? So I showed up and he answered the door in his pajamas and then continued to make drinks and I was like – interesting. Wow, it's really not formal this whole casting couch procedure. It lasted about ten minutes. You know, us girls, we're smart. You leave, with me it's not an option, I mean seriously, it would just get really ugly.

Question: When you read this woman's story what touched you the most?

Charlize: That this was real, that this actually happened, it happened very recently. I mean this was only settled in '95. I felt incredibly naive as a woman to sit in my fortunate circumstances never having to deal with anything like that and think wow, we're all good, everything's great and to find out that this doesn't just happen in little rural communities, it happens everywhere.

Question: You are so immersed in such an organic performance does that affect your relationship with those around you?

Charlize: No, the only thing that's hard, and it's not because I am in a hole or the method of staying there or anything like that, the only thing is, and not with Stuart and not with my mom, but with most of my friends is that you just don't have the time to call everybody every single day. That's the only thing that I really miss over the three months is that you just don't have that much time or head space to really stay in touch with your friends or anything like that. But I don't like bringing my work home because it makes my work not as effective I think. I need the energy, I need to be able to switch off and rest.

Question: So you can walk out the door and the character is "Bye, bye?"

Charlize: It's disciplined, and I really believe that every actor can do it; it's just much easier to kind of wallow in self pity.

Question: Isn't it a bit more difficult in a role like this or your role in Monster; such traumatic and tragic roles? There is one scene that is really emotional with you and your son, that couldn't have been easy.

Charlize: Yeah, you want to know how that scene ended? I was making fun of my driver the entire day because she had a Martha Stewart Living magazine in the car and she got very excited and she went, "Oooh, look what I am going to make, hen cakes." And it was like this cake that was like a hen. So the whole day I was making fun of her saying, "Oh, we are going to make hen cakes." That scene, I told Niki [Caro] the story and we had a laugh about it and she asked one of the drivers to go and find a cake that looked like a hen and so the last take of that scene is literally me sitting on the porch and Thomas coming out with a hen cake. That's how we ended that night and I think it almost sounds wrong because the subject is so serious but we had an incredible time on this film. I think laughter is so healthy and so necessary otherwise we would all slit our wrists.

Question: What was it about her that really was a lot like you?

Charlize: I think she starts off very much like me. I think she was a girl that had a great personality and could take anything in high school and took one knock, after another, after another, after another in this community and instead of dealing with these things you just kind of keep them in, and I think because of that she just started being more insecure, shier… she reminded me of a tortoise, she kept putting her head deeper and deeper into her shell that when this sexual harassment stuff happens it's not just that, it's years of stuff that she's never been able to stand up for in her life and say, "That is wrong."

That's very different from me, in many ways, I am much more like Glory [Frances McDormand's character]. I think what I liked about, even though it wasn't very much me and I am not interested in me so it was great, was that she was quieter, when she walked into a room she was probably the least likely one to change or do something historical and that's what I liked about her. I would hope to think that if I had children that my primal instinct would be as strong as hers. I think it will. I could relate to that, standing up for your kids and doing anything for your kids.

Question: How was it working with the kids on set?

Charlize: I was very, very frightened. I wasn't going to be running around with babies here I was going to be running around with a 13 year-old and a 5 year-old and they are as smart as they come, and you don't want to screw up kids. I think they're at an age when they work in this industry that I don't want to be a part of that, I don't want to mess them up. So I really stepped away from the process and let Niki deal with that because she did such an incredible job with Keisha [Castle-Hughes]. Then I also wanted to have a connection with them [to make sure] this relationship was real. I felt if you didn't believe that then the stakes weren't high enough for this woman. Because everything she does, she does for these two kids. Not that she's this great parent, because I think she is very flawed. To pick her up in the beginning and see her put her kids constantly in these bad relationships because she has no independence and the only way she knows how to put food on the table is by being with a man and every time she does it she gets involved with a bad guy who beats her or is an alcoholic. To own that in the beginning of the film and to load those kids up and say, "I'm not doing this anymore," is a very flawed mother. Then to get to a place of saying, "Yea,h maybe I am not the greatest mother but I will do anything for these kids."

Question: Are you thinking about kids?

Charlize: Sure, yeah.

Question: Do you feel pressure, like I have my career, I have a great relationship with Stuart, I want to have kids now?

Charlize: No, I want it to be very organic. It's something that I have always known, I want to have kids. It's not something that has just happened for me right now. You get a little older and you start thinking… hmmmmmm… But it's not like I am in a rush or anything, if it happened tomorrow it would be great, if it didn't I would be fine with that too.

Question: How long have you and Stuart been together and how does it work with you both being actors?

Charlize: Almost five years now. You know I think the most important thing is not what the person's occupation is, but the personalities. It's the two personalities that have to live together and he challenges me and keeps me on my toes. He's a fire sign and I'm a fire sign, what I like to calla Sagi-terrorist. [laughter] The only thing I can say is that we understand each other's jobs, but that's really it. Very supportive of each other and we know how much our careers mean to us so we never stand in the way. We always say we'll make it work and whatever happens you make it work, that's all.

Question: You are gone for months at a time.

Charlize: Yeah, well we talk every day. He's my best friend and I don't see my best friends every single day either, we're individuals but we spend more time [together] than the couples that we know. We like spending time with each other and we make time for that, but if I go and work on something, it's not like I go for three months without seeing him.

Question: What about this role, you are so immersed in such an organic performance does that affect your relationship with those around you?

Question: After winning the Oscar do your selections for movies change?

Charlize: No, I took this role [North Country] a week before I won the Oscar. I would be stupid to say it wasn't because of the [Oscar] noise, I'm sure it had a lot to do with that too, but it was before I actually won the Oscar.

Niki and I had dinner about a week before the Oscars and it was a hot date, she finished my sentences, I finished her sentences. We were on a complete same page. I fell in love with her and was so inspired by her as a woman and I said, 'Look, if you'll have me I'd love to do this.' I also did that with Aeon Flux, when I won [the Oscar] I never entertained any other offers or read any other scripts, I haven't read a script since Aeon Flux and North Country in the last two years.

Question: The Aeon Flux announcement was just after the Oscars.

Charlize: I had said yes and then they went and did all the paperwork and all that stuff, but I had completely committed myself to these two projects because of Karyn Kusama and because of Niki. Those are two filmmakers that I really wanted to work with. They felt like two projects that were day and night from each other. I like the physical aspect of Aeon and I liked doing this with Niki and then I just never read anything else, or entertained anything. So it wasn't like now I've got an Oscar, what do I do now? I think that was great.

Question: Are you fine after your Aeon Flux injury?

Charlize: I didn't break [my neck], it was a herniated disc in my third and fourth vertebrae. It was bad enough, but good enough to not be too bad.

Question: What did you do to do this?

Charlize: I did a back handspring and my feet slipped from underneath me and I landed on my neck with my body straight [in the air]. I was on a wire, but the thing is I was really learning gymnastics and you only get speed from not really using the wires that much, so the wires was just guiding me, the wire wasn't lifting me. And I was getting to a place where I was really starting to be good at it, where the wire was just really a safety for me, but the problem with that is the wires really slack because you're really doing it all by yourself.

Question: Are you okay now?

Charlize: Yeah, I have one more checkup to go for. The reason why we had to shut down was just because if I had any other smaller accident, like if like a car accident, or if I slipped and fell, or anything like that it was really close to if it had moved anymore it would have compressed on my spinal cord. That's paralyzed. The nerve damage is what was really problematic because I lost all feeling in the right side of my body. So I just came back and did intense physio-thererapy and intense cortisone treatments.

Question: Did you ever doubt doing an action movie again?

Charlize: No, it was an accident, accidents happen and you've got to get over that fear. The physical aspect of the film is what I was interested in. I come from a background of telling stories with my body and I thought this was a really great throwback to that and I really wanted to do it that way. You know, this character doesn't say a lot and I love that about her, so for me to go and not do the physical stuff, there's no need for me to do it.

Question: How different is the girl that made 2 Days in the Valley?

Charlize: I got an Oscar now. I only talk to selected few. [laughing]

Question: You are so down to Earth, what has kept you that way?

Charlize: Because my mother beats me. [laughing]

Question: What does your mom think of all this?

Charlize: She's hilarious, she's become this person, "Oh, you think you don't have to call me back now because you've won an Oscar?!? Interesting!" Everything I do bad now is, "Oh, we think we're little Miss Hotshot 'cause we've got an Oscar."

Question: What's next for you?

Charlize: Nothing, I'm going to go live life. It's time to go live life.

I'm doing a five episode character on "Arrested Development." I really didn't think I would go back to acting for the rest of this year, then they called and I said, 'Oh God, I love the show, I would love to do some comedy.' But other than that I'm producing a couple of things that doesn't take me away from home. Stuart's working nights so I can work a little bit during the day or at night.

Question: Is the Brazilian Job a real thing?

Charlize: Not for me, I haven't seen a script. I keep hearing it from the journalists, I haven't heard anything from Paramount.

Question: Are there still things you want to prove with your life?

Charlize: Always, yeah. I think that's what is so great about this job, the creative process is never done. I never felt like I could sit back on any performance and say, "Well, I really fucking nailed that one." I wasn't classically trained, so I learn on the job, I learn making movies and so I failed on movies and I see that. I see that when I watch my work I see where I've made mistakes, I see where I didn't work and so the next time around I am even more excited to go and not make those mistakes and to challenge myself even more.