Theron: Strong women still ‘deserving of love’
LOS ANGELES – Think you know Charlize Theron’s type? ❚ “Long Shot,” in theaters Friday, would beg to differ. In the new romantic comedy, Theron detours from a spate of killer action films and gritty dramas to a gut-busting romantic comedy that finds her sophisticated alpha falling for the perpetually scruffy Seth Rogen. ❚ “I never thought it was an unusual pairing,” protests Theron, 43, who joined Rogen, 37, as a producer on the film. “He’s really smart. He’s an ambitious guy. I feel like, yeah, sometimes he plays these kind of guys who are a little lost, but (his character) is not a loser.”
In “Long Shot,” Theron plays Charlotte Field, a telegenic secretary of state whose love life has been back-burnered as a result of her ascent to the Cabinet. But then Fred Flarsky (Rogen) enters her life, a disruptive, disheveled journalist who accepts a temporary gig as her speechwriter. And as Charlotte contemplates a presidential run, love unexpectedly blooms aboard Air Force One.
For Theron, “Long Shot” marks a big swing in a necessary new direction. “I find making movies tedious sometimes,” the Oscar winner acknowledges. “It’s long hours, it’s many days, and I am of the personality that if I don’t have a challenge at hand, I get bored – and I then just become unhappy . ... When you look at the last 10 years of my career and the movies that I’ve made, you can tell I’m trying to get outside a box.”
It’s a solid strategy. Critics have been impressed by how “Long Shot” meshes Theron and Rogen’s singular talents into a winsome love story. “Rogen’s shaggy humor finds its match in Theron’s domineering energy,” IndieWire’s Eric Kohn wrote of the comedy, which won an audience award at March’s South by Southwest film festival.
Offscreen, Theron and Rogen jelled, bonding over a shared work ethic, though “she intimidated me/still intimidates me sometimes,” Rogen laughs.
“Long Shot” arrives as romantic comedies are enjoying a renaissance. “We were trying to make a movie that was for people our age,” says Rogen, who peppered their film with everything from a Boyz II Men cameo to a cartoonish president (Bob Odenkirk).
For Theron, “Long Shot” also meant to chance to craft a relatable, ambitious politician who isn’t lambasted for putting work first. “She doesn’t have to give everything up to find love, and I think that’s a very modern love story today,” she says. “Women can function as individuals and still be deserving of love.”
As she continues to redefine female protagonists in movies including “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Atomic Blonde” and “Tully,” at home, Theron’s children (Jackson, 7, and August, 3) care zero percent that their mom is a trailblazing movie star.
“My 3-year-old’s favorite new word is ‘Actually ...’ ” Theron says with a chuckle. “Everything starts with ‘Actually …’ ”
Theron has been spending recent weeks binging podcasts to prep for her upcoming Netflix comic-book adaptation, “The Old Guard.” She’s quick to give credit to her mother, Gerda, saying she wouldn’t have had the bandwidth to adopt her second child without her help.
But sometimes those opinionated little people get the best of her.
“Prior to last year, it was a more agreeable house,” she sighs. “It was easier to agree on what we were going to do as a family, or what we were going to watch or eat.” While determined to encourage their individual voices, “sometimes I’m just like, ‘Can we just all agree that we’re having corn dogs?!’ ”
So on occasion, mom life means delivering an award-winning performance in her bathroom.
While trying to reason with her “very intelligent, strong, outspoken kids,” she says, “I literally go into the bathroom and I look in the mirror and go: ‘This will serve them when they’re adults . ... You just gotta stay strong.’ I do like a whole De Niro talk in the mirror with myself.”