Charlize Theron is back
In the twisted new comedy Young Adult, opening Friday, anti-heroine Mavis Gary is a frequently drunken, perpetually foul-mouthed, terminally inappropriate and determinedly unsympathetic woman.
Which is just the way star Charlize Theron likes her.
I dont really like sympathy, she says of her approach to the character.
I dont even like it for myself. Sometimes sympathy can feel like youre trying to kind of victimize someone. I dont know, maybe its just my own (stuff) that I have to deal with, but I think that, more than anything, people just want to be understood, you know?
So this is what you should understand about Charlize Theron.
She grew up in rural South Africa, where her parents were farmers. She studied dance. Her father was an abusive drunk; when Theron was 15, her mother shot and killed him. (Self-defense, said the authorities.) Theron threw herself into modeling, soon moving to Manhattan, where she was accepted into the Joffrey Ballet School. She then blew out her knee, ending her dance career at 19.
Sympathy? Save it.
Because instead, Theron already tall and slim as a sunflower just picked herself up, picked another path and got on with it. Switching her focus to acting, she moved to Los Angeles and started auditioning. And although her first film was a straight-to-VHS horror or did you miss Children of the Corn I! II: Urba n Harvest? eight years later, Theron was holding up a best actress Oscar for Monster.
So no, Charlize Theron, 36, does not believe in feeling bad for herself, let alone asking others to. The woman has all the drive and determination of a herd of springboks on the move, and while she is full of genuine, generous concern she supports PETA, pushes for womens rights and has her own South African childrens charity she has never wanted anyone elses sympathy.
I grew up in a house with an alcoholic, she says frankly, during a quiet interview fit into a day of big news conferences and quick TV shoots. And I experienced a lot of people being overly sympathetic, and for me, sympathy and pity theres a very, very fine line between the two. Maybe I was being ultrasensitive, but they way I was treated then, the way people looked at me, it made me feel weak. And I was not a fan of that feeling at all. Im still not.
A comedy on the edge
Nobody in the audience for Young Adult is likely to feel too much pity for Mavis Gary who stuck emotionally somewhere back at 16 goes back to her tiny hometown to try to win back her ex-boyfriend. (The fact that he is currently happily married, and a new father, is so not important.) And, as far as the filmmakers are concerned, if you dont feel too much pity for her well, thats not important, either.
But will you come to understand Mavis Gary? Thats something Theron and screenwriter Diablo Cody, and director Jason Reitman are much more interested in.
Im obviously a fan of traditionally unsympathetic characters, says Reitman, who made Up in the Air, Juno and Thank You for Smoking. But also of finding the humanity in them. And I knew ! Charlize would do that. There are other actresses... I wont name names, but theyre constantly reminding you This is not me, this is a character. But Charlize has the confidence to just deeply embed herself in this hugely flawed person. And to never judge her, never ask you for your forgiveness just simply show you the humanity in her.
I thought the things she did were pretty despicable, Theron says about Mavis. But, then again, not like to the point where I was disgusted by her. I never, never had a hard time liking her. I would love to go and have a beer with her. She smiles. I just would never let her hang out with my boyfriend.
These days the boyfriend in question may be purely rhetorical. Theron recently split from her partner, actor Stuart Townsend, after 10 years together. The breakup was a painful one which, shes admitted, is why shes been off the screen for a while; trying to avert a split and make the relationship work was her real priority. And Theron has no problem with focusing on a goal.
But determination isnt always enough.
On my couch, potato chips, unemployed, is her deadpan joke at the morning press conference, when someone asks where shes been for the past few years.
But she goes on to mention a host of other projects (including Prometheus, next years epic sci-fi from Ridley Scott). And quickly, subtly heads off any sob-sister stories about Poor Charlize.
Please. Save your sympathy for someone who needs it.
Growing up strong
Not that it didnt take awhile to get to this place, where she could shrug off disappointments.
I was pretty much a mess after primary school, Theron volunteers. So by the time I got to high school, I was kind of broken in and more immune to all that (mean girl) stuff. I wasnt really in the popular crowd. I went to art school, I was kind of obsessed with ballet, I wore really, really nerdy glasses. I was blind as can be. And boys dont really like big nerdy glasses. Not so much.
She had one massive crush at the time,! she adm its, on a boy who didnt know I existed. Recently, an interviewer for Vogue tracked him down. And the fellow, whod ignored Theron at the time, now swore he remembered her, that she had these cute glasses, that the crush was completely mutual. And Therons disbelieving response to him today is.... Well, unrepeatable here. But it was two short words, and they werent Thank you.
After school, after ballet, she went to Hollywood, at the urging of her mother (with whom she remains fiercely close); she got her first big break when she pitched a fit in a bank, over a check that hadnt cleared, and the fellow in line behind her happened to be an agent who saw potential.
And Theron was determined to live up to it.
Even in less-than-wonderful movies like 2 Days in the Valley, where James Spader rubbed ice cubes on her chest, or Mighty Joe Young, where she played opposite a big gorilla Theron went flat out. Even when she was still being written off as just another former model the quotes, invisible or not, always a bit of a sneer she kept at it.
I may have been insecure in finding myself as a teenager, or early-20s person, but I always had a very strong sense of what I felt was inside me, she says. My mom always used to tell me, You have a foundation, and the foundation is there because of who you are, not because of what people think you are. And its the kernel of that truth, of your truth of knowing who you are, deep down that lets you not pay that much attention to what people perceive in you.
Sometimes all that people perceived were her long legs and apple-cheeked good looks or the way those contrasted with her salty language, fondness for motorcycles and ability to knock back a few stiff drinks. (Every article needs a headline, she says of th! e saucy image.)
But then one director, Patty Jenkins, perceived that there might be something more to her than a pretty party girl, that Theron might be right to play the battered, bisexual serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster. It was a gamble Theron still finds amazing. And it paid off, not only with a powerful film, but a best actress Oscar.
The confidence game
What that proved to me is that youre really only as good as your opportunities, Theron says. Sometimes, as an actress, you dont have the material to back you up, or the filmmaker, and you just sort of grasp at straws... But once in awhile a director really trusts you, and you get the chance to prove what youre capable of. When someone trusts you that much...
She laughs.
I dont know, its like steroids for an athlete, you know? she says. Or maybe having a really great coach. But it just makes you push yourself in a way that you couldnt have, on your own. I just feel so blessed that directors first Patty and now Jason have taken that risk with me, and gambled on me playing these characters when, really, there wasnt any evidence to justify that kind of faith.
I wouldnt have made the film with anyone else, Reitman says flatly. Its so rare to find an actor who is so dead-on about finding the truth in a role and who isnt so incredibly full of themselves. Often youll meet someone and all they want to do is talk about the process, and their craft. Or they go off before the shoot and get in character by taking some bizarre job. Or they get on set and want to stay in their wardrobe 24 hours a day. But Charlize just does it. She just does her job. And you know, after being off the playing field for a couple of years, you could tell she was really happy about being back up at bat.
Its the k! ind of s urprise, switch-hitting performance that sometimes picks up prizes and inevitably brings clichd questions from hack journalists. So, of course, someone at the morning press conference asks Theron if shes excited about the Academy Awards, and the possibility of picking up a little golden statue next year.
Actually, I have an Oscar, she coolly replies. And then catches herself.
"God, that was an a thing to say! she exclaims, laughing.
Of course, the prickly, unpredictable Young Adult may have some trouble getting traction in end-of-year competitions. Mavis is a difficult character at the beginning of the film and without giving anything away still hardly a role model by the end.
Whatever else happens in the movie, there are no group hugs and sincere apologies.
Or pleas for sympathy.
I dont know if its how I was raised, but I guess Ive carried that into how I look at characters, Theron says.
I never think about whether theyre likable or not. All I want to do is treat them with some kind of respect, and understanding. And I guess thats all Ive ever asked for, too. Just understand me, you know? You dont have to do anything else.
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