In Prometheus, she plays Meredith Vickers, the woman in charge of Prometheus’ expedition, representing the Weyland Corporation, and let’s just say that she’s not the warm and cuddly individually we normally see Theron play in movies like Monster, Young Adult and Snow White and the Huntsman (ha ha).
Here’s a roundtable interview with the actress we sat on in with a group of journalists earlier in our trip. At the end, Charlize even talked about her upcoming stint in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which will start filming in Namibia in July.
Q: Are you as excited to be back making huge movies?
Theron: I just want to make good movies. Honestly, the only difference for me with this stuff is that there is more people on the set. You know, the narrative for me is always the most important thing. I feel like 15 years ago you could compartmentalize these things. You could be like, “Well, that’s your little indie movie, and this is your big film.” I feel like now, movies like “District 9,” I think studios have learned that you can merge the two. A good narrative and a big blockbuster is a good f*cking movie, so why separate the two? So, those are the kind of movies that I’m looking for. I don’t want to separate like my good work from my big studio movies anymore. I just want to be a part of some good storytelling.
Q: So do you feel you have a new lease of life, tackling harder subjects and tricky films?
Theron: I mean, I’ve had a really great last year. Everything from “Young Adult” to this, I feel very creatively satisfied and going on to “Mad Max.” So I feel really, really lucky, yeah.
Q: You were involved in a small indie movie that went to Sundance a couple of years ago, so are you still involved in production?
Theron: Yeah, we produced “Young Adult.” Then, I think we have eight projects now that are being greenlit for next year. I’ll go right into one in January. But yeah, we have about eight movies. We’ve got two shows at HBO, one with Ridley, one with David Fincher. We wrote a Chris Buckley movie there, that I’d like to do. We have a deal at ABC. We have some shows there.
Q: Will you be involved as an actor in these as well?
Theron: On the projects? Some of them, yeah, some of them I’m involved in, some of them I’m not, no.
Q: What’s the deal with TV? You mentioned a lot of networks that are doing some of the best shows.
Theron: I think some of the most creative work is coming out of television. I felt it’s very immediate and I like that. It’s really fast. It’s got a pace to it, and that’s why I think everybody in my field wants to just do good material. We want to push the envelope. Whatever field you can do that, that’s where you want to do it, and I think that’s why people like David Fincher and Ridley Scott are interested in it, too, because when you sit down on a meeting in HBO and they’re like, “More, more.” You’re just like, “Oh yeah, I love this.” Sometimes it’s a little harder in film. I think also it’s a great audience, take advantage of it. It’s a great audience.
Q: I think most of us agree that TV right now is the best it’s possibly ever been. What are some of the shows that you just can’t get enough of?
Theron: I like a lot of different shows. (Laughs) I watch a lot of stuff that people are somewhat shocked by, but I am absolutely like foaming at the mouth with “Game of Thrones.” Like, I can not not get enough of that. When my son came in my life, that was a bottle feed because I couldn’t watch television, I used to watch so little. That was my TiVo feed every two hours, was watching “Game of Thrones.” My mom was like, “Do you think it’s fine that you’re feeding your son while there’s like sword fights?” I was like, “It’s fine, Mom. It’s fine.” So, I’m somewhat obsessed with that right now. I like “Veep.” I’m really excited for Aaron Sorkin’s new show.
Q: If they reached out to you to do Season 3 or 4 of “Game of Thrones,” is that the type of show you’d be interested in doing?
Theron: I’d be totally open to it. I’m open to anything, dude. I’m open to anything.
We also asked Charlize a semi-spoilery question about her character, which you can read below.
Prometheus opens in North America on Friday, June 8. Look for more interviews with the cast and director Sir Ridley Scott in the next week. Next up will probably be Michael Fassbender.
And here’s a semi-spoilery question asking Charlize about a theory some of the journalists had after seeing
Prometheus; might be worth holding off on reading it until you’ve seen the movie.
SPOILER ALERT!
SPOILER ALERT!
SPOILER ALERT!
Q: After seeing the movie, people were theorizing that your character might be an android. That’s not said in the film and probably not even true. I wanted to know if you thought of that.
Theron: (Laughs) We played around with a lot of stuff, I’ll just say that, nonspecific things. I don’t think we ever went like that. (puts her finger down as if pressing a button) But we played around with a lot of stuff, and we threw a lot of stuff out there very loosely, and maybe they influenced some of it a little bit, but there was definitely something that happened once David and I kind of stood next to each other, where I started feeling like his posture was overtaking my posture. There’s the good age-old question like, “Is the chicken before the egg?” Like, is it him or is it me or is it part of my DNA in him? We did talk about that a lot, that it was nice to have something ambiguous about the origins of both of us, maybe, like why do we look so much alike? Why am I walking so much like him? Is it that I am an android or is it that I gave him human qualities, that I gave him my DNA? We played with a lot of that sh*t, which was fun.
