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EW Interview: Charlize Gets Dirty
 In a very revealing Q&A, the acclaimed actress opens up about ''North Country,'' her life post-Oscar, and why she's not afraid to get grimy by Josh Rottenberg.It's been a year and a half since Charlize Theron won the Best Actress Oscar for her ferocious performance in the 2003 film Monster, in which she transformed herself from stupefyingly beautiful screen siren into horrifying serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
Figuring out how to maintain career velocity after an Oscar victory can be one of the trickier (if more enviable) dilemmas in Hollywood, as evidenced by some of Theron's predecessors on the podium, like Hilary Swank and Halle Berry.
Since that Oscar night, Theron has marked time in smallish projects: the little-seen World War II drama Head in the Clouds, in which she costarred with boyfriend Stuart Townsend; the HBO biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers; and TV's Arrested Development, on which she's doing a five-episode stint as a wacky British woman.
Now Theron, 30, is pulling out the big guns. In the drama North Country, she plays a Minnesota single mother who brings a sexual harassment class-action lawsuit against the iron mine where she works. In December, she dons a skintight suit to play a badass futuristic assassin in Aeon Flux, adapted from a cult anime series. One is a socially conscious piece of Academy catnip, the other a shiny hunk of would-be blockbuster entertainment; together they present a formidable combination-punch answer to that perennial post-Oscar question: Where do you go now?
As obviously proud as she is of North Country, Theron herself has a low tolerance for hype. In a conversation that ranges from sexual harassment to career calculations to the tabloids, she punctures BS at every turn with plainspoken frankness. Welcome to Theron Country. Leave your preconceptions at the border.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What do you make of the Oscar buzz surrounding North Country?
CHARLIZE THERON: Look, it's nice to hear. They could be saying this movie should go straight to video. But it isn't why I wanted to do it. It's always frightening when that kind of talk happens this early. People get crazy. Madness ensues.
What was it about the character of Josey Aimes that you hooked into?
I liked that she was incredibly flawed. She was really just town-gossip material. Her strength didn't come from a feisty personality - it came from this primal instinct: I've got two kids to support and I'll do anything I can for them.
The scene in the union hall, when Josey gets barraged with sexist catcalling while trying to give a speech, is so intense it's almost hard to watch. What was it like to shoot?
That was my first three days of principal photography. We brought the guys in, 400 of them, and when I walked into that hall for the first time we started shooting immediately. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what they were going to say, how hardcore they were going to be. It was a little bit too real. I broke out in hives and started hyperventilating and swore at Niki and told her she was a bitch. But I wonder what that scene would have been like if we'd shot it three weeks later, when I was a little more comfortable in that environment. I don't know if it would have ended up that way. I never acted in those three days.
Did you have your own experiences of sexual harassment to draw on?
No, I've never been sexually harassed.
Really, not even in some subtle Hollywood way?
No. I mean, the couple of times some dude did something disgusting are irrelevant. Even if that was somebody's intention, it's not something that would fly. That's why it's not even worth talking about the couple of sleazy guys you might have met. It's just not an option. If I spot it, it's done. I'm out of there.
Is that something that goes back to your childhood?
When I was growing up, it was ''a man is a man and a man does a man's job.'' Yet at the same time, my mother had a road construction company and that was considered a man's work. So I never really paid that much attention to the culture. I grew up just thinking, If my mom can build roads, I could do whatever I wanted.
There's obviously a lot riding on the decisions you make after winning an Oscar. Do you have any sort of career strategy in mind?
I don't think you can. There's no formula that really works in this business.
Does it annoy you, the extent to which people analyze and second-guess your choices?
Sure, some people are like, ''Ugh, she's doing another ugly movie. That's all she does now.'' Then, of course, Aeon Flux is just, like, ''Oh, she's doing the crappy...'' I don't really listen to that too much. I find it funny that they call North Country ''another ugly movie.'' F--- that - Josey's hot! She wears tighter pants than I've ever worn in my entire life! But people hear ''mining woman'' and they jump on that bandwagon. I laugh at it.
Halle Berry is someone who took some flak for her post-Oscar choices, like Die Another Day, Gothika, and Catwoman. You were quoted last year as saying, ''Note to self. Do not become Halle Berry.''
Which I didn't even say. That was a comment the writer made, and he said that I'd said it. That's not my style. I don't like that kind of cattiness. Women shouldn't go against women - as far as people's career choices? God, no. It's hard, you know? I tried to make contact with her. I sent her flowers saying ''I really want you to know I never said that,'' and she never called back.
So what do you think of her choices?
I think Halle Berry is an incredible actress. I have no problem with the choices she's made. And she seems to be fine. She doesn't seem to be hiding under the floorboards. At the end of the day, we have to take responsibility for the choices we make. If it doesn't work, at least I took the power in that situation. I'm sure Halle has done the same.
You've done several recent films with female directors, from Patty Jenkins on Monster to Karyn Kusama on Aeon Flux to Niki Caro on North Country. Do you think women filmmakers see more possibilities for you than men because they're less focused on your looks?
I believe that, sure. That was definitely the case with Monster. Patty saw something in me I don't think any guy has ever seen. And the same with Niki.
Did you feel that earlier in your career, a lot of directors saw you as essentially eye candy?
I can't just blame directors. It was a lot of studios, too. You're a newcomer and you look a certain way and people go, ''Nobody's going to care about somebody looking like her.'' That was the biggest problem in my career. It was years of showing up at auditions in baggy pants and dirty hair and things like that - to prove to people that it wasn't something I was concerned about. It was a pain in the ass. But would I want it any other way? No. I like that I had to fight for things. I think in some ways it made me the actor I am today.
The irony is, when you did Monster, the focus was still on your looks.
I know, then it was completely the opposite: First she's too pretty, now she's just ugly. [Laughs] It's weird to me how much emphasis gets put on physical appearance in this country. If I didn't have as thick a skin as I do, it would really bother me.
Was the experience of winning the Oscar what you imagined it would be?
It was just very surreal. I found myself going, F---, I grew up on this little farm. It's not like I was a little girl going, ''I want to be an actress.'' This had kind of found me. Afterward, I didn't just want to do celebrity mingling. I got 10 of my really close friends into the Vanity Fair party and we found a corner and ate In-N-Out burgers and passed the Oscar around. It was a great moment. [Pauses] I don't want to take it for granted or sound jaded, but I don't want it to affect anything else that I do. I just want it to be what it is.
For a celebrity couple, you and Stuart have managed to keep a low profile, at least in terms of the tabloids.
We try as hard as we can. Sometimes it's impossible.
Are you surprised by how willing some celebrities are to serve up their private lives for public consumption?
I'm not going to sit here and judge. The only thing that sucks is that those people who encourage it f--- it up for the ones who don't, because they keep those magazines in business. It's like a great David Lynch horror film, that whole paparazzi thing. I understand if people want to see celebrities in pretty dresses at awards shows. But to follow somebody to watch them pump gas and pick up dog s---? How are you going through your life if that's interesting to you? Get a National Geographic and find out what's going on in Africa, for f---'s sake. I don't get it.
There are a lot of profiles of you that portray you as sort of one of the guys: ''Charlize Theron lights a cigarette, pounds a beer, orders a steak, jumps on a motorcycle-''
Yeah, and you've witnessed all of those things. [Laughs] At least I swore a little bit, didn't I? Look, I'll smoke a cigarette for you if you want and we'll throw back a six-pack. [Sighs] I think I'm different things on different occasions. For anyone to read one article and think they know you - it doesn't work that way.
For all our talk about post-Oscar career strategy, with the exception of Arrested Development you haven't actually signed on to any new projects since you won your Academy Award a year and a half ago. Have you been keeping tabs on what's out there?
No, I haven't read a script since right before the Oscars. I said yes to both Aeon Flux and North Country before the Oscars and I knew they'd keep me busy for the next two years. If you've just committed yourself to two projects, entertaining any other stuff is like dragging yourself over broken glass.
And your manager has been cool with that?
Yeah, because it's my life. I'm not just a moneymaking machine. There have been some offers, but I just didn't feel ready to go spend eight months on a film set. Not one day goes by where I go, ''Oh, f---, what am I missing out on?'' I love my life as much as my work. I don't want one to take over the other.
So when you do finally go back to reading scripts, do you have an idea of what you'd like to do next?
No. I like not knowing what's out there. I've never walked around with this one specific part in my head, like, this is what I want to play one day. Everything that's ever come my way was something that felt different, where I didn't know the world. When I do go back, it'll be a new discovery. It's in the hands of the stars and the moons and the universe. It really is.
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