Why stacking on weight to play a stressed mother in Tully messed with Charlize Theron’s head

CHARLIZE Theron’s default mode in recent times has been badass, but her latest role was very different and it left her feeling pretty low.

CHARLIZE Theron’s default mode in recent times has been badass — from Mad Max: Fury Road to Atomic Blonde and the cold-hearted, dirty-mouthed corporate manipulator she plays in the upcoming black comedy Gringo.

But the 42-year-old switches gear for a moment in Tully, playing Marlo, a mother of three overwhelmed by her responsibilities and wiped out by post-partum depression.

Theron herself became a mother six years ago when she adopted her son, Jackson. Daughter August, now three, followed in 2015.

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Finding the requisite level of tiredness to play Marlo wasn’t an issue.

“Believe me, I was living that exhaustion,” says Theron.

“I’d go home from set and live it every day. It was hard for me, but of course, my circumstances are different from Marlo’s, as it is different for every mother.

“But I can tell you that playing this role didn’t feel foreign to me.”

For the sake of authenticity, Theron eschewed the traditional ‘fat suit’, gaining more than 20kgs. It worked for the role, but it didn’t leave the star feeling great about herself.

“I was not in a happy state because of the diet I was on, which was really not healthy, but it put me in a mental state pretty much like Marlo,” she says.

Mackenzie Davis, left, and Charlize Theron in a scene from Tully.

“It would be impossible to make a movie like this and not have empathy for women in this position. Although I’ve had empathy for friends who have suffered post-partum depression, after this movie I was like, ‘God, my heart goes out’. It’s just not understood enough and it’s a really tough thing to go through.”

She pauses, as if there’s a bit of a lump in her throat.

“It’s really heartbreaking.”

Change sweeps through Marlo’s life when a night nanny, Tully (played by Blade Runner 2049’s Mackenzie Davis), arrives to lend a hand.

Not only does Tully help Marlo finally get some sleep, she soon as the house in order and her friendship reignites a bit of Marlo’s old spark.

Tully reunites the team behind 2011’s Young Adult — Theron, director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody.

Like Young Adult, Tully may not be to everyone’s tastes, but it is without doubt completely gritty and raw in confronting the realities of parenthood.

“If I didn’t have Jason and the people that I love to work with, Tully would have been a really bad experience for me,” says Theron, who was also a producer on the film.

“But having a partner like Jason who understood what was going on for me, I am grateful for that.”

Reitman returns the compliment.

Writer Diablo Cody, actress Charlize Theron and director Jason Reitman pose at the Los Angeles premiere of Tully last month. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

“As a producer and as an actor, Charlize brings a fearlessness to everything she does. Her desire to be authentic in every scene was the only way to make this movie,” he says.

In Cody’s writing, the director sees “no heroes, no villains, just people with faults”.

Hence Theron’s Marlo is not the usual kind of screen mother.

“Charlize’s constant search for truth, never wanting to wink to the audience, and just disappearing into the character shows us what kind of an actress she is and what I admire about her so much,” Reitman says. “With Diablo and Charlize, we are all in the car together.”

As with Patton Oswalt in Young Adult, Reitman again chose a comic actor for Theron to bounce off — in this case, Ron Livingston as Marlo’s husband, who is largely absent from parental obligations due to his work commitments.

Theron says it was “a difficult character to walk into” for Livingston.

“I was so impressed with Ron. Most male actors are not okay with that kind of role because they want to be super-dad. Funnily enough, I know Ron because our kids go to the same school,” she laughs. “So I’d see them dropped off and go, ‘Hey, movie husband!’”

In Gringo, she’s paired with Aussie Joel Edgerton, the two playing the heads of a pharmaceutical company.

Charlize Theron plays corporate nightmare Elaine in Gringo.

Mixed up in some shady business south of the US border, when things go wrong, these merciless bosses feed a clueless underling — played by David Oyelowo — to the wolves.

Gringo is directed by Joel’s brother Nash Edgerton, who had been friends with Theron ever since she saw his acclaimed 2007 short film, Spider, and sought him out. The two had been searching for a project to tackle together — she has a producing credit on Gringo — and the older Edgerton delighted in making her say lines of dialogue as corporate nightmare Elaine that would make a sailor blush ... and sometimes Theron, too.

“Things came out of (Elaine’s) mouth that I never imagined would come out of my mouth,” Theron says with a laugh. “There were a lot of moments during the making of this film where I was completely red in the face and looking at my crew going, ‘Guys, I’m really sorry for saying all this stuff’. Fortunately, they’re very loving people.”

Edgerton thinks his star is selling herself short on her sweariness and sense of humour.

“She definitely leaned into the character in a great way — it was fun to get her to play that,” he says. “But I don’t think I taught her to swear or anything — I think she knew how to do that already. She has a great sense of humour. We’d do a scene and there would be a bit of apologising to the crew and stuff for the things she was saying. Once she embraced the character, everyone knew how it was going to play and I think everyone was relishing getting to see her do that.”

Though both have their humour, Tully and Gringo also fall under the ‘dark’ and ‘complicated’ banner that Theron so often excels in. She insists it’s not her preferred territory.

“People think I like the dark stuff but I actually don’t like dwelling in the dark,” she says. “Even though I like the honesty of real conflict in the real world, and I guess that is dark and I embrace that, I don’t set out to make dark movies.

“I think of these movies as honest. And I like honesty.”

Tully also addresses the idea that women sometimes lose their identity once they become mothers.

How does Theron see herself?

“I’m a mum to two beautiful children and I’m Charlize and I make films. It’s all who I am.”

TULLY OPENS THURSDAY. GRINGO OPENS MAY 31.