CELEBRITIES Charlize Theron hopes daughters are represented in Hollywood
NEW YORK — Charlize Theron says she’s making choices as a producer and actor to ensure her “two small, beautiful African American daughters” will feel represented on screen.
The Oscar winner said it can be hard for Black children to “kind of imagine the possibilities” when so few films and television series are centered on characters that look like them.
“I was raised during the apartheid era in South Africa. So, I come with a lot of that baggage already,” Theron said. “I was part of a system that I as a white person benefited from in South Africa. And that’s a tremendous amount of guilt that I carried, and still carry my entire life. I’m in therapy over it,” Theron said in an interview promoting her action thriller “The Old Guard,” which hits Netflix July 10.
“It would be impossible for me to not have that somehow be rectified in what I can do in my job as a producer, as an actor — and the responsibility that I take, the accountability that I take of what I put out there for not only my two young girls, but for young girls out there in general.”
Director Gina PrinceBythewood directed “The Old Guard,” which was based on a graphic novel and stars Theron alongside an international cast including “Aladdin” star Marwan Kenzari. KiKi Layne plays a U.S. Marine who joins Theron’s group of centuries-old immortal warriors.
Theron says she’s been watching recent protests around racial injustice in the U.S. through the lens of her home country’s history. She hopes the current movement leads to lasting change, particularly in promoting diversity within
Hollywood.
“We move five steps forward and we pat ourselves on the back, and then we just stop. And that’s been the danger, a dangerous place that we’ve lived in, in my industry,” she said.
SAG Awards pushed to March:
The 27th Screen Actors Guild Awards is the latest awards show to push its date. The awards show, presented by Hollywood actors to Hollywood actors, will take place March 14, executive producer Kathy Connell announced in a statement Thursday. That pushes it back more than a month from its original intended date of Jan. 24.
The nominations are now set to be announced Feb. 4. The new show date also allows the guild to extend its eligibility period by two months, making films and television shows first exhibited or broadcast between Jan. 1, 2020, and Feb. 28, 2021, able to qualify for the acting awards. The submission window for nominee consideration will run from Sept. 21 to Nov. 20.
The 93rd Academy Awards, which serve as the grand finale to the awards season, have been pushed to April 7 instead of Feb.
28.
July 4 birthdays:
Actress Eva Marie Saint is 96. Actress Gina Lollobrigida is 93. Actress Karolyn Grimes is 80. Singer Annette Beard is 77. TV host Geraldo Rivera is 77. Percussionist Ralph Johnson is 69. Singer John Waite is
68. Bassist Matt Malley is
57. Actor Al Madrigal is 49. Actress Becki Newton is
42. Actor Mo McRae is 38.