Charlize Theron: ‘My industry is embarrassed’

The actor talks about her childhood, her unorthodox career path, the making of Bombshell and the similarities between Harvey Weinstein and Roger Ailes.

Charlize Theron’s characters are rarely “likeable”, at least in the conventional sense. AP

Abby Aguirre

Dec 24, 2020 – 12.00am

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Charlize Theron has made a career of jolting audiences into looking at women fully. Now 44, Theron was still in her 20s when she moved away from sweetheart roles to play the prostitute turned serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster. (This after reportedly firing a manager for sending her too many scripts in the Showgirls vein.) She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2004 for the performance and has studiously avoided Hollywood typecasting ever since.

This year, she produced and starred in sci-fi fantasy The Old Guard, in which she plays the leader of a group of immortal mercenaries. It’s a role that brings to mind Furiosa, the one-armed warrior in Mad Max: Fury Road.

Atlantic