Before you ask… yes, she is that gorgeous in the flesh. After Sigourney Weaver on Tuesday, it was Charlize Theron’s turn to keep the Hollywood quotient high at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival with a Reel Life audience Q&A on Thursday evening. Admitting that she had fortified herself for the Edinburgh session with a whisky – and with another dram of Scotland’s national drink supplied halfway through the live event – Theron was intelligent and forthright on overcoming preconceptions about her looks, her Oscar win for Monster and the state of Cuban politics (her visit coincides with screenings of East Of Havana, a documentary she produced about Cuban rappers).
Hosting the event, EIFF Artistic Director Shane Danielsen quipped that he looked like Quasimodo in comparison; maybe, on a Disney cartoon theme, Beauty And The Beast would have been a better example. ‘Beauty’ was indeed on the agenda, as Theron discussed a career that took her from South Africa (where Afrikaans was her first language) to New York (where she was a ballerina) to Los Angeles (where she modelled before getting a break in Two Days In The Valley). Seemingly she first got noticed in a downtown bank after causing a scene while trying to cash an out-of-state cheque, desperately needing the money to pay her accommodation bill in a rent-by-the-hour motel. Luckily the guy behind her in the queue was a talent manager. Wider recognition came with The Devil’s Advocate which, according to her, she nearly didn’t get because director Taylor Hackford couldn’t believe that Keanu Reeves’ character would leave someone so beautiful for another woman. Coming from anyone else, that might sound arrogant, but Theron has a down-to-earth, appreciative sense of her good looks. “In life you get dealt a certain hand of cards” is her philosophy.
After doing Aeon Flux and North Country back to back immediately following her Oscar win, Theron hasn’t acted on a Hollywood soundstage for almost two years. Instead her energy has been channelled into getting her independent production company up and running. She’s also looking into projects that might fit into her timeframe to allow her to do some theatre work at The Gate in Dublin. Perhaps her most interesting comment of the day, however, was regarding the mythical Hollywood casting couch. “I think that it does exist,” she said, “but you have to go into this industry knowing who you are. You can give off the possibility or you can let them know ‘No f***ing way!’” No matter how many whiskies it takes…
Alan Morrison