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Out of Character
Trivia question: Name a recent Best Actress Oscar winner who grew up milking cows. Stumped? What if we tell you she's blond and beautiful, except when she's playing a female serial killer, in which case she's shockingly scary? What if we add that she's intensely passionate -- not in the typical Hollywood way, but in galvanizing people into action for the causes she believes in?If you still haven't guessed, it's Charlize Theron. Growing up on a farm in South Africa, she picked corn, rode motorcycles and, yes, milked cows. In a country divided by apartheid, she was taught to speak her mind during highly charged political discussions. She learned to stand up for herself, a lesson driven unmistakably home one night in 1991 when she was 15. Her father arrived in a drunken rage, and in self-defense, her mother shot him dead. At age 16 and on her own, Theron moved to Europe to model, then to New York, where she studied ballet. After a knee injury, she made her way to Hollywood, where she had to fight for parts that required her to do more than look beautiful.
Playing a serial killer in Monster was Theron's biggest challenge. She became one of the few actresses under 30 to win an Academy Award, demonstrating a wizard-like ability to change the way she looks and moves, disappearing into her character.
For her new film, North Country, based on the true story of a woman who brought a landmark sexual harassment suit against a Minnesota mining company, Theron spent time with locals and miners to absorb their culture. This kind of on-the-ground research, she says, allows her "to find the truth" in a role.
RD: Is the story of your discovery true? You lost your temper when a bank wouldn't cash your check and ...
Theron: It was my survival skills kicking in. When you're that age and you're trying to get by, if you roll over, you're going to die. I had to stand up and say, "If I leave this bank without this check cashed, I'm not going to have a place to sleep tonight." A [talent] manager behind me in line later introduced me to an acting school that I really liked.
RD: It was a moment when a chance encounter changed the course.
Theron: Yeah, yeah.
RD: Did you experience apartheid growing up in South Africa?
Theron: You couldn't live there at that time and not experience it. But you know what? I had a wonderful childhood, and I feel so incredibly blessed to have been able to live in the nature that I did live in.
RD: Were there wild animals around where you lived?
Theron: Not on our farm. We had ostriches -- and cattle.
RD: What kind of farm?
Theron: My parents had a road construction company, so they used most of the land for the big graders, machines and water trucks. But we lived off the farm to feed the household.
RD: Did you work in the garden?
Theron: I had to milk cows and pick corn -- and learn how to drive the tractor at a very young age.
RD: I have a friend whose ancestors crossed America in covered wagons. She was raised with a frontier ethic: "Whatever happens, I can handle it." Was that same ethic taught to you?
Theron: It's all about survival. A good friend who still lives in South Africa deals with the circumstances there every day. She talks to me in this matter-of-fact way about having had her handbag robbed, or being held at knifepoint in her house. I was raised with the idea that you can feel sorry for yourself, but then, get over it, because it doesn't get you anywhere.
RD: Did you ever go through a period of rebelling?
Theron: There was always this awareness that you have to be responsible for yourself in order to have what you want. And that meant "Be responsible with this little motorcycle that we're going to give you, because you're only five. If you're not, you're going to hurt yourself" -- which I did. My mom wasn't like, "Poor baby." She was like, "You do wheelies. That's what's going to happen." My mom's philosophy was, "If you get yourself in trouble, you've got to get yourself out of trouble."
RD: How did your father's killing affect you?
Theron: That's something I'm not talking about anymore. I feel like it's just time to put that to rest.
RD: Tell us about North Country.
Theron: I play a woman who lives in northern Minnesota and leaves her husband. To support her two children she starts working as a hair colorist, making like 89 cents an hour. You can't feed three mouths with that. The mine is hiring women, and she starts working there. Pretty soon, she can afford a house and take care of her kids. But, this mine is the bread and butter for everybody in northern Minnesota. A lot of men feel that jobs are being taken away from them for women to work there. So, the women in the mines start being treated poorly.
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