‘I WON’T SETTLE’ Charlize Theron on love
The actress reveals she’s still searching for the man of her dreams – who isn’t afraid of her star power
The inspiring story of how two brave female news anchors helped bring down powerful Fox News head Roger Ailes for his predatory sexual behaviour, the film Bombshell was made for this era of movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up.
With the story behind Bombshell unfolding in early 2016, Charlize Theron, who plays gusty reporter Megyn Kelly, says there’s no better time than now to bring this fight for female rights to life on the big screen.
“I’ve never been a part of something that’s been that synchronised,” she says of the film. “We started on this project before any of this stuff really was in place – #MeToo or Time’s Up or the Harvey Weinstein saga, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer. And so it was kismet that we found this script at the time that we did.”
As a co-producer on Bombshell, what was it like casting Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson?
Nicole Kidman is just an icon. Her range was the thing I was most inspired by as an actor, watching her have this ability and this need to really go outside of a comfort zone and do things that felt so surprising. And every time I saw her in a new film, she was pushing that envelope. So to me, she is as good as it gets. I can’t believe I’m in a movie with her, I can’t believe she said yes! And it’s odd that it’s taken this long for us to work together, because we both have really actively tried to find projects to do together.
And what about Margot Robbie, who plays a fictional producer?
The tenacity that young girl has, to walk into this industry and to just say, right from the get-go, “I’m going to do this on my own terms”, is something I take my hat off to. And it’s been so impressive to watch how she’s navigated her career, not just as an actor, but as a producer, and that takes real bravery. We are not necessarily
at a place where it’s open doors and welcome for women to come in and step into that role, and she’s done it so eloquently and beautifully.
Bombshell fuels conversations about sexual discrimination and harassment, and in this day and age, women’s voices have never been more heard. Have you found that?
I think the conversation of sexual harassment has always been around for as long as I can remember being a woman, which happens to be my whole life (laughs). But it’s a different conversation today than it was, I would say, 10 years ago. We really didn’t have access to that conversation or to be a part of that conversation, because I don’t think anybody believed us. And we are now at a time and place where so many women have bravely stepped forward to share their stories, that we realise this is a systemic problem that we actually have to look at. So to make a movie like this, at this specific time, is really, really important.
Your transformation into Megyn Kelly is remarkable. How did you do it?
Because we are both blonde, there’s a generalisation that we all look the same, but we actually have very different features. People think I have a full face of prosthetics on, but it was our makeup artist’s talent and understanding that if we change certain little small things about my face, it would go a long way, coinciding with temperament and how I carried myself. Actors always tend to want to stay away from doing
anything that messes with your eyes, because so much of storytelling happens through silence. And the combination of really dark contact lenses and then two prosthetic pieces that went from my eyelids all the way up to my eyebrows – [it was] very, very complicated.
You’re a strong, unapologetic woman. How have those qualities impacted your love life?
I think a huge part of a lot of my relationships has definitely been me being hyper-aware that there was an element of me living my full potential that felt somewhat threatening. And in my 20s, I remember a lot of times thinking, if I could just make myself a little bit smaller, my relationship would be great. And I think the older I’ve become, the more I realise I don’t want to end my life feeling that I did something to hold myself back. Ultimately, I am hoping I will meet somebody who is thrilled by all of those things that I have to offer. And I am also now at an age where until that happens, I’m just not willing to settle any more. My life is just too beautiful to have anybody come and pee on my parade.
Are you open to being set up on dates?
I’m very open! Listen, I would love to meet somebody … As a young model, did you experience sexual harassment?
There was definitely a level that now, looking back, I felt it was incredibly abusive. I remember being on shoots and just feeling like there was nothing I could do to make somebody happy. That’s a really s---ty position to be in as a young girl.
I feel like the reason why I wanted to make this movie was because I really believed that this is not specific to just one industry. I feel like this issue is something that affects women who are up north picking avocados! I saw the potential to tell this story where women of all social, economic, all different cultures, all different nationalities, could relate to, and maybe bring change.
“I felt it was incredibly abusive”