Charlize Theron's power move from feisty star to funny girl

After playing the ultimate badass in a string of films that includes Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde and Snow White and the Huntsman, Charlize Theron is now shifting gears. Starring in the romantic comedy Long Shot, the Oscar-winning actor deconstructs her fierce image and proves she's equally compelling when revealing her softer side.

But because the feisty star never does things by halves, she's also reinvented the traditional rom-com by flipping gender on its ear. This time she plays the alpha character, a powerful politician who falls in love with an unambitious journalist, played by Seth Rogen. Yes, the Seth Rogen, best known for stoner films like Pineapple Express and Superbad. Even the movie poster is in on the joke with the tag line, "Seth Rogen + Charlize Theron: Unlikely but not Impossible."

Charlize, 43, is the first to admit it's an unlikely move for her. "To be blunt, I never thought I'd be in a romantic comedy; it's 100 per cent not my jam," she offers. "So instead of being sad about not getting those opportunities in my career, I just went about doing weird, darker comedies where I felt like I wasn't doing comedy at all."

In Long Shot, Theron plays Charlotte Field, the sophisticated and decidedly single Secretary of State in the White House. Rogen doubles down on his slacker persona as Fred Flarksy, a free-spirited unemployed journalist who crashes an event where he bumps into Charlotte, his first romantic crush at 13, when she was his 16-year-old babysitter.

Fred reminds her of her youthful idealism and she impulsively hires him to be her speech writer, taking him around the world to increase support for her environmental initiative. When they embark on an affair while on the road, a scandal erupts that threatens to derail her planned presidential run.

“I never saw myself as a rom-com person. The characters I’ve played are incredibly flawed because I’m incredibly flawed.” Credit: Getty Images

"What I was really attracted to more than the genre itself was working with Seth and his team, and we got along right from the get-go," Charlize says enthusiastically of their five-year collaboration on the film, helmed by Jonathan Levine (also director of two Rogen films, 50/50 and The Night Before).

"We both wanted to tell the same story; something that felt of its time, modern and contemporary, with characters in it that you could not only relate to today but also when you rewatch it in 10 years. And we really wanted to have high stakes for these two people to overcome in order to end up with each other."

Rogen chuckles about one scene in the film in which a penis video goes viral. "When one of the writers came up with this scene, we were like, 'I think we pushed it too far.' Then the Jeff Bezos thing happened and it was all real!"

Rogen is referring to the Amazon boss, who had compromising photos hacked from his phone earlier this year. "It was tough at times working on this film. How do you keep up with a culture that is moving at a rate and in a direction that is startling?" He shakes his head in disbelief.

A long-time Los Angeles resident, Charlize looks somewhat out of place sitting in a Universal City hotel suite that has seen better days. But, ever the pragmatist, this single mum chooses location over luxury in order to stay close to home and her children, seven-year-old Jackson and three-year-old August. Her blonde hair is pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail and her grey cable turtleneck sweater is pulled down so that it almost covers her short cream Dior skirt, but shows off her long legs and buckled black ankle boots. She's a spirited straight shooter, funny as hell and with the vocabulary to swear with the best of them.

In person she bears no resemblance to the woman who scared us in her Oscar-winning role as a serial killer in Monster (2003), intimidated us as a rebel soldier who gives Max a run for his money in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), and earned a Golden Globe nomination last year for her role as a struggling new mother in 2018's Tully.

When she's complimented on her hilarious but vulnerable performance in Long Shot, Charlize is genuinely thrilled. "It means a lot to me," she says gratefully. "How cool is it at this point in my career that I'm still getting to try new things?"

This is not the first time Charlize has made us laugh, but A Million Ways to Die in the West and Young Adult were not love stories. While many colleagues have played classic leading ladies, she's willingly embraced the dark side.

Charlize Theron in 1992, aged 16.Credit: Getty Images

"I just never saw myself as Julia Roberts, the rom-com person, and I didn't see what I could bring to those roles anyway," she says dismissively.

"All of the characters that I've played are incredibly flawed because I'm incredibly flawed. We can sit in this comfy room, with a nice heating system on, and think that we're not flawed and say things like, 'I would never do that.' But until you actually stand in somebody's shoes, it's not a very fair assumption to make.

"That's always driven me, in a weird way, to find the empathy within those not-so-pretty things about people."

Long Shot does more than straddle the line between romance and raunchy humour; it also explores the shifting power dynamics, post #timesup.

"It was important to me to tell a story that never took that easy route of a girl giving up everything that she has ever wanted for a guy and for love," Charlize says proudly. "That's a huge concept that we were fed in long-established love stories; that if you love somebody enough, you are willing to sacrifice everything. Frankly, these days that's not a healthy thing to put out there."

Although she dated Irish actor Stuart Townsend for nine years and was engaged to Sean Penn before they ended their two-year relationship in 2015, she's never been one to kiss and tell. She pauses to carefully craft a response when asked how she relates to the film's relationship dilemma.

"There are moments I could relate to, that reminded me of relationships I've been in, where you come to that crossing of roads and say to yourself, 'Do you not live a life that is to your full potential in order to be with this one partner?' I've definitely dated guys who, if you looked at them on paper, you'd be like, 'Wow, they couldn't be intimidated by me.' But then we start dating – and guess what?" She rolls her eyes.

Although recent rumours suggest that she and Brad Pitt might be more than good friends, Charlize quickly shuts down that line of questioning. "I'm not really thinking about dating now. I'm single and I have a full life with my kids and my career."

Born in Benoni, South Africa, Charlize grew up on a farm and attended boarding school in Johannesburg, 50 kilometres away.

At 16, she entered a Johannesburg modelling contest on a whim and won. This was shortly after her father was shot dead by her mother in self-defence following a domestic dispute.

Her subsequent modelling contract afforded both mother and daughter the opportunity to travel the world together, finally settling in Los Angeles. They remain exceptionally close and even now the hands-on grandma – who is usually with the kids when Charlize is working – lives only a stone's throw away.

Mention her modelling days and Charlize baulks. "I wasn't particularly gorgeous when I was a kid," she insists. "I had no teeth, which was a huge insecurity for me. I had jaundice as a baby and the antibiotics really rotted my teeth so they were pulled out and until I was 10 or 11, I didn't have any teeth!

"Every girl has something they have to overcome, I guess, so that was mine."

For the past 18 years Charlize has embraced her status as the face of Dior, collaborating on memorable ad campaigns for its J'adore fragrance collection. "I absolutely love that relationship," she says with delight. "It's brought something to my life as a woman, as an actress, as an artist and as a mother that I don't think I could have imagined when I signed on."

When she talks about her kids, the fierce adoption advocate corrects media reports that stated her son, Jackson, was adopted in South Africa

"I had cast a wide net, because my belief is babies choose you almost more than you choose them, so when I knew I wanted to be a mom I was like, 'Let it be,' " she explains. "There are a lot of countries, South Africa included, that aren't very forgiving to single mums and make adoption almost impossible, so my children just chose to be born in America and that's fine with me."

Her next role is in the upcoming untitled Roger Ailes project, in which John Lithgow plays Fox News boss Roger Ailes, Charlize plays Megyn Kelly and Nicole Kidman plays Gretchen Carlson in the true story of how Kelly and Carlson took on Ailes and the toxic male culture he created.

"It's like a time capsule, maybe two years before it all happens," she hints of the film directed by Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents). "People have a preconceived idea of what a movie like this will look like, but Jay brings an ability to telling a story that doesn't feel like medicine. He's brave enough to really tackle this thing."

When it comes to bravery, Charlize knows what she's talking about.

This article appears in Sunday Life magazine within the Sun-Herald and the Sunday Age on sale April 21.