Theron gets physical and passionate in new spy thriller
CHARLIZE Theron doesn’t mind going over the top. In fact, she relishes it. For example, in her new spy thriller, Atomic Blonde, she kills someone by impaling him on one of her high heels. “I’m someone who really wants to push the envelope,” she said.
Theron also served as the producer of Atomic Blonde, which opens in London this weekend and in South Africa on August 18. In it, she plays Lorraine Broughton, an undercover British agent who, during the Cold War, is sent to Berlin to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.
“My company developed this,” Theron said, “so I knew from the beginning this was something I needed to do.”
She encountered the Antony Johnston-Sam Hart graphic novel on which the film is based five years ago and was immediately captivated.
“I was looking to do an action film and this offered a kick-ass female character,” she said. “I just fell in love with it. At the same time, I had no idea if I could play her or if I would get the chance.”
She and her producing partner Beth Kono acquired the rights and spent the next four years trying to get it made. Then one day Theron’s phone rang.
“I was on the way to Budapest,” Theron recalled. “It was Beth saying Atomic Blonde was actually going to happen. Finally, it just all came together.”
Among elements coming together was a cast including James McAvoy as David Percival, a British agent who may or may not be what he appears to be, and John Goodman as a duplicitous CIA agent.
Theron went back to the gym to prepare for the part – nothing new to her after the rigorous physical training she underwent to play Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
“I had eight amazing fight trainers who basically made me puke every single day,” she said with a laugh. “I am very grateful to them, because I’ve watched this film with audiences and it’s special to me to see an audience connect with this character. You needed the physicality to make that happen.”
That included her share of painful moments, of course.
“Yes, that was my face bouncing off the wall,” Theron said. “You’re welcome. I’m a pro.” That she is. “Women can kick ass in a movie,” Theron said, “but, like men, it takes a lot of work. I worked with our fight choreographer Jon Valera and at first it was so hard. I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ One day, I called Beth and said, ‘This is never going to work’.
“I was doing moves where I looked like Big Bird,” she continued. “That was because they were teaching me fight stands for about two weeks. “It made me stronger. The training was also about the consistency of going every single day to the gym. We recorded me training and, in the two-and-a-half months, the progression was amazing. Things I never thought I’d be able to do became easy.” Such as? “For example, I learned to throw my entire body on the floor and land on my back,” she said. “I did that while throwing these really big dudes around. At first, I said to (director David Leitch), ‘We’re going to pretend I’m throwing the guys around.’ David was, like, ‘No, you’re really going to throw some really big dudes’.” Theron wasn’t the only A-list star working with Valera’s team during those months. Keanu Reeves also was on hand, training for John Wick: Chapter 2. “We even sparred with each other,” she recalled. “We’d scream, ‘I’m going to take you down!’ It was all very macho and fun.” There’s more to the film than violence. As Broughton, Theron has a love scene with a beautiful French spy (Sofia Boutella). “Women owning their sexuality the same way males do in movies is not something we see enough of in the movies. It’s very real and we’re so scared of it. I think it’s beautiful. “It was choreographed, just like any other love scene,” Theron added. “She’s a dancer and I’m a dancer. It’s always so technical, because you have to think about moving this way or that way – it’s not glamorous because you have to deal with the technical issues. “At the same time, you want it to look real and cool on the screen.” Because she was producing the film, Theron was able to include some of her own tastes – notably the music of David Bowie. “Percival asks Lorraine, ‘How do you sleep at night with all this (bad craziness) going on?’” she said. “My response was, ‘I listen to David Bowie’. “He was an inspiration of mine in life,” Theron went on. “We lost him while we were making this film. We have his songs Under Pressure and Cat People in the film because I really wanted to celebrate him.” Theron, who grew up on a farm in South Africa, studied ballet and dance as a child and teenager. Dance took her to Europe and the US, where she performed with the prestigious Joffrey Ballet until a knee injury ended her career. She decided to give acting a try and her mother gave her a one-way ticket to Los Angeles. There she got her first break – at a bank. When the teller wouldn’t cash her mother’s out-of-town cheque, Theron made a scene… and an agent who was waiting in the queue was impressed and passed her his card.