interview - CHARLIZE THERON

Getting Ugly

Charlize Theron plays a bad mom who abandons her little girl in Sleepwalkers. Unattractive as the character is, the role has what the former model likes best, “a little bit of ugly truth”

So you win an Oscar for playing way against type. Then you’re supposed to cash in, right? Do big-paying projects that don’t necessarily tax your skills as much, with the occasional prestige pic thrown in just to remind moviegoers (and, of course, producers) that you’re capable of the arty goods.

Unless you’re Charlize Theron. Since putting on poundage and loads of unattractive makeup for her Academy Award-winning portrayal of a serial killer in Monster, the South African beauty has clearly been following her heart.

Yes, she made a sci-fi superhero movie, Aeon Flux, but it was such an unusual take on the genre that it died on release. And, true, Theron will be seen later this year in another superhero project, Hancock, opposite none other than box-office king Will Smith.

But for the most part, Theron has been headlining, producing or just contentedly lending her presence to movies that capture her imagination.

The one-time model claims quite persuasively that she doesn’t care whether or not a film emphasizes or downplays her blond goddess appearance, is built around her or makes a lot of money. Just like North Country and In the Valley of Elah, her latest release Sleepwalking — which she also produced — proves all of those points.

“Like everything that I do, it was a very initial response,” Theron says in a recent phone interview. “We’re still living in a society where we want women to be mothers and nurturers and girlfriends. This character wasn’t that. Though I’m never looking for anything specific, I do know that I get excited when I find something that has a little bit of ugly truth to it.”

Directed by first-timer Bill Maher (not the political comic) from a script by Zac Stanford, Sleepwalking casts Theron as restless single mother Joleen who, along with her 11-year-old daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb), moves in with her brother James (Nick Stahl) after her boyfriend is arrested and she’s forced out of her home. But soon after moving in, Joleen meets a new man and walks out on James, leaving Tara in his care.

Theron says the role intrigued her not as a star vehicle (her part is not huge), but more as something she just had to see get made.

Sleepwalking is the second feature film Theron has both starred in and produced. Her first was Monster, and she learned then that not only was producing fulfilling; it could be a sanity-saver.

“It’s a mixture of a few things,” Theron explains. “I’m very passionate about filmmaking, and for me that’s been through being an actor and a producer; for others it’s through writing and directing. But there’s something really creative and amazing that happens when I do produce. And I do think that producing actually is a positive thing for me when I’m acting. You know, as an actor, you spend a lot of time alone in your trailer. I’m sure for some people that’s a good thing. But I learned on Monster that it would have destroyed me, personally, if I had to live in a trailer by myself while playing that. I would have gone stir crazy.”

Theron also backed the music documentary East of Havana, and has an executive producer credit on the film she’s currently shooting, The Burning Plain.

Sometimes, though, it can be rewarding in an entirely different way just to act. Like when it shows you a whole new side of someone you know very well. Theron’s real-life love interest, actor Stuart Townsend, makes his directorial debut with the politically charged drama Battle in Seattle later this spring, and she plays a key role.

“Working with him was amazing,” Theron says in the straightforward, matter-of-fact way she speaks on most topics; in other words, not sounding too gushy. “I think people want to hear the little tagline or the funny thing because he’s my boyfriend. But at the end of the day, I was incredibly impressed. I showed up as an actress and he was the director and, other than once in a while slipping up and calling him his nickname in front of his crew, it was very much a working relationship. And I really, truly believe that he has incredible talents as a director.”

And no, Theron is not about to share that pet name.

She is happy to point out that her apparently rarefied taste and preference for serious subject matter should in no way be interpreted as snobbishness.

“I want to make good movies,” she acknowledges. “I want to make great movies. I want to make movies that make people feel something when they leave the theatre, and that ask a lot of questions.

“But I’m committed to all kinds of film,” Theron adds. “I’m in Hancock; if I read something I like, it’s not genre-driven or anything for me. I thought it was a really well-written piece that wasn’t just fluff. There was a real intelligence to it, yet it was fun. It’s smart, complicated, had a lot of conflict. I don’t see a lot of that come Fourth of July [Hancock’s scheduled release date].”

And while that action pic looks like the kind of surefire hit even the most respected award winners like to add to their résumés, Theron sees no upside to thinking along those lines.

“Y’know, there is no recipe in this industry,” she observes. “You can ask the biggest stars that — Will Smith, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise — there’s no recipe to knowing what’s going to work. If you’re going to sit around and try to figure that out, good luck to you. At the end of the day everybody has their priorities. My priority is just to do stuff that somehow gets into my bones. There’s no way of really explaining it. It’s just something that you feel and it happens and not for one second do I ever go, ‘Well, let me see; will this be a commercial success?’”

Bob Strauss is an L.A.-based entertainment writer.

COLD COMFORT

Although Sleepwalking takes place first in Northern California, and then in Utah, what you’re seeing on the screen is all Regina, Saskatchewan.

The largely California-based cast and crew braved blizzards and temperatures of -37 Celsius in order to make the most of their limited budget by shooting here.

According to director Bill Maher, there was one more famous Canadian element they had to brave — ribbing from local crew members who had little sympathy for their warm-blooded counterparts. —MW