Charlize Theron on life, booze, four letter words

Young Adult ... Charlize Theron plays a heavy-drinking, foul-mouthed free spirit.

In Charlize Theron's new film, Young Adult, she plays Mavis Gary, a heavy-drinking, foul-mouthed free spirit who finds herself in embarrassing situations.

Sit down and chat with the Oscar winner for a few minutes and you discover Theron shares a few attributes with her character.

She likes a drink.

She swears like a sailor.

Embarrassing situations?

"Oh wow. I am embarrassing every day," the 36-year-old laughs during an interview in a New York hotel.

"I just had an embarrassing moment.

"I just went into the bathroom (in the Ritz-Carlton foyer) with my make-up artist who is a man and gay and a lady came out and I was standing there with my boobs out and she was like 'Ahhhhhhh!' and Shane was like 'Ahhhhhhh!' and they ran into separate corners.

"I was topless in the middle of the room.

"Then she called security so the Ritz came with security.

"This happened three seconds ago."

Young Adult's director, Jason Reitman, a three-time Oscar nominee with a film resume including Juno, Up in the Air and Thank You for Smoking, knew he had found the perfect Mavis after just a few minutes chatting with Theron.

"One of the first times we met she told me a really dirty joke and that's when I knew I loved her," Reitman says.

The joke?

"I can't say," Reitman laughs.

"I'm too protective of my actors.

"Honestly, a woman with a dirty sense of humour is probably the most attractive thing on Earth.

"She had me at that point."

Theron and Reitman are expected to add to their career records of Oscar nominations on January 24 when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reveals its nominees for the Fe! bruary 2 6 ceremony at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.

The fact that Theron has been nominated twice before, winning best actress in 2004 for playing a serial killer in Monster and a nominee for portraying a workplace sexual harassment victim in North Country in 2006, does not surprise Reitman.

He says Theron nailed the pivotal scene in Young Adult, where Mavis has a meltdown on the front lawn of her ex-boyfriend's home, on just the second take.

"Once you get past the 'Oh she's a stunning human being and kind of God's intention when he created the word beauty' you realise what really defines Charlize Theron in the realm of actors is she is brave and gutsy," Reitman explains.

"It's not that she'd do Monster or do this film.

"It is she does them with so much honesty.

"You never feel her judgment of the character and you never feel her judgment of anybody else.

"There's a vulnerability to her as a person and a vulnerability she brings to every character she does and she never lets you know she is acting.

"That makes it easy for me because I don't have to coerce her.

"The people you have to coerce are the people who are trying to act.

"You need to bring them back to a place in reality and I never needed to do that with Charlize."

Theron laughs when it is pointed out that most articles written about her focus not just on her beauty, but her references to enjoying a drink and regular use of profanity.

"I'm not an alcoholic and I don't swear that much. Do I?," she asks with a smile.

"Just because I fall it doesn't mean I'm drunk.

"I feel like people love to write about that because it is sells magazines and it is shocking.

"Look, I've learned this is not a dress rehearsal and you have to live life the way you want to.

"I don't want to be 80 on my death bed and say 'Gosh, I wished I lived my life'.

"I'm living my life. I don't think there's a rule book.

"I feel so blessed I get to do ! a job I love and people actually pay me to do it.

"I don't know how in the hell it happened."

Young Adult opens in Australian cinemas on January 19.

AAP