Charlize Theron is a rather intriguing actress, in interviews she’s open, honest and rarely self-congratulatory and this, we feel, can be somewhat refreshing. In YOUNG ADULT, Theron plays Mavis Gary, a teenage fiction writer who after her divorce returns to her home-town in Minnesota. She also drinks too much, says the wrong things in any moment and then tries to rekindle a romance with her ex-boyfriend, who is now happily married and has a newborn daughter. Sounds like a dangerous, yet entertaining and addictive character to get to know.
After a three-year break from acting, Theron also returns to our cinema screens in the Ridley Scott epic PROMETHEUS but first she’s starring in Jason Reitman’s black comedy YOUNG ADULT, don’t forget to check out Joe Upton’s review here.
We’ve been lucky enough to have this interview from Paramount where she talks about her involvement with YOUNG ADULT plus some little snippets about SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN and PROMETHEUS. We’ve picked some clips and best bits for you:
Q: What appealed to you about Young Adult?
A: It was really different. When I originally read it I thought that it was ballsy in the sense that Diablo wrote a character, a protagonist who learns a lesson but doesn’t necessarily make a change in her life. And it felt very real to me. It felt very human to me. And of course the idea of Jason Reitman directing it was very appealing to me. I’m very director driven and to get the chance to work with him was really the thing that sealed the deal.
Q: Do you have to find something in a character like this that you can relate to?
A: Well there was a lot that I could relate to. She is a real girl, she is doesn’t feel like a movie person to me. So there was definitely a lot of her that I could relate to – that I’ve seen in other people, that I’ve seen in myself that didn’t feel foreign to me. I don’t know how to play ‘movie people’ or caricatures; I only know how to play characters that I feel I can ground in reality. I mean, if my feet are not grounded in something that’s real I don’t know how to play that.
Q: So you’ve got Jason Reitman as the director, Diablo Cody has written the script so when you get on set do you stick to the script word for word? Or is there room for some tinkering on the day?
A: Diablo wrote a great script and then Jason came in and got his voice around it and I kind of came in and added my voice. It’s a great collaboration, which I love. I think anything in the arts has to be collaborative otherwise you can get robots to do anything. I think it’s all about chemistry – it’s getting the right people together to cohesively set out to make the same movie and that’s sometimes the hardest thing to do.
Q: There’s a good mix between wanting to dislike the character but also she’s got something intriguing about here, being self destructive and like a hand grenade waiting to go off…
A: I think the great success of the film is that people initially think that they won’t identify with a character who is this mean – and Mavis can be really mean – but they do. Jason talks about how going to the movies is like holding up a mirror and seeing yourself and I believe that, too. I know that the films that move me the most are the ones that I can see myself in. And they are not necessarily the ones with characters that have these great attributes that I aspire to, although those are much easier to see. It’s the ones that make me see the flaws, the not so pretty stuff. And I think that’s why people, especially women, respond to Mavis.
And for me that’s the cherry on the cake – the fact that women can actually see themselves in her and, let’s be honest, she’s not the most beautiful, in the sense of her heart and soul, protagonist I’ve seen on film! (laughs).
Q: Did you do Prometheus after this one?
A: Yeah. And working with Ridley was amazing. Of Ridley’s generation I think there are abut three that are masters of filmmaking and Ridley is one of them. I think every actor has a director that they dream to work with and for me it was Ridley. Out of all of those guys of his generation I’ve always walked around saying ‘God, I would give anything to work with Ridley Scott..’ and he was everything that I hoped and dreamed for. I’ve been a really lucky girl lately.
Q: You’re shooting Snow White and the Huntsman at the moment. How’s that going?
A: It’s going really well. It’s super ambitious and very big and it’s been interesting and really good. We’re being very ambitious over here.
Overall, Theron says this was the best working experience she’s ever had:
“It really was. And that’s quite something because I’ve had really amazing experiences. I think it was a combination of several things – the role, working with Jason, the material and the fact that I hadn’t really acted for three years.
“And to go back and have my first film in three years be Young Adult with Jason on a 30 day shoot, no hair and make up, sweat pants every day, and go to work and do some amazing character studies, was just a joy. Every single day I had a giant smile on my face and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much.”
Source: Paramount
