Charlize Theron Talks About Her First Kiss, Her Leading Men and Her Pink Hair (NY Rock)

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It takes a tough woman to hold her own in a movie about the all-male world of Navy divers, but for Charlize Theron that's part of the big appeal of being an actress. The lanky beauty, who caught audiences off guard in The Devil's Advocate among other films, talked about what it was like playing Robert De Niro's honey and surviving their stormy screen marriage in Men of Honor. She also traced the thrill of doing classy-looking ladies in period films such as Men of Honor and The Legend of Bagger Vance to her childhood pleasure of dressing up in all those fancy grownup clothes.

NYROCK:

You seem to be in almost every movie around right now, Men of Honor, The Yards and The Legend of Bagger Vance. Would you say you're a workaholic?

CHARLIZE:

I have been working a lot, and I like it. And you know, it's hard for me not to. I guess I've been working a lot because I get to play with brilliant people.

NYROCK:

Do you ever worry about being overexposed when the movies come out all at once?

CHARLIZE:

Whoa... Everyone is so concerned about me! Which freaks me out a little bit, because I don't think about it too much. I like what I do, and I'm very fortunate now to be in a very nice place. Which is that I don't have to work anymore. So the work that I do now is purely because I really want to.

Yet there's a hunger in me still. I'm like only beginning. I feel like I still have so much to learn. I guess because I pay so much attention to the physical part of the character, I don't look upon it as like Charlize Theron up there. I don't think of them as like Charlize Theron films.

They really stay just characters to me. I look at them, and I don't see always the same person up there. And hopefully, people will see that too. Because it's very easy to bore people, and that's a killer. So hopefully that won't happen.

But I love it, the concern thing is very nice. If I don't like seeing myself on the screen, I think when I start seeing that, that's when I think I'll stop.

NYROCK:

What did you like about the woman you play in Men of Honor?

CHARLIZE:

That she didn't necessarily have something as silly as being a woman stand in her way, that was an interesting thing to me. And it's great to play somebody who is flawed, but who is resilient.

So many of the characters in Men of Honor have that same need to come to terms with something in their lives. Carl has his crisis, and Sunday has to face the fact that he can no longer be a diver. And my character Gwen has to come to terms with the reality of her life, and that this is the man she needs and is going to spend her life with. You know, that she'll never do anything more than that.

But the challenge was that this was a part that demanded what she demanded from me. You always have this fear in a movie of just being somebody's woman. But no, this time you're in charge, you're running the whole thing. That's great.

NYROCK:

Being in all these movies means you also get to kiss some of the most desirable leading men in Hollywood, like Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon and Robert De Niro. Is it possible that it's all just getting to be another day at the office?

CHARLIZE:

You make it sound so... medical.

NYROCK:

But are they great kissers?

CHARLIZE:

Sure, yes. And I'm not going to say anything else, because it always gets me into trouble.

NYROCK:

After hanging out with all those sexy guys, do you still have any recollection of your first kiss ever?

CHARLIZE:

Sure do. He had braces. We were in the backyard. And you'd think I might not be a good kisser because of this first kiss. Anyway, it was in the backyard after we just had watched Friday the 13th. What a real romance movie!

So we were just standing there because it was so planned. Like okay, you're gonna come over, watch a movie, then we kiss. His name was Nicky. We were standing in the backyard and I'm like, you wanna do it, you wanna do it? Well, okay, then let's do it. And we're standing there arguing about it for so long, it was just awful. But then it was darkness, saliva and tongue.

NYROCK:

How old were you?

CHARLIZE:

It was actually yesterday. No, I was twelve I think, twelve or thirteen.

NYROCK:

What was it like playing De Niro's wife in Men of Honor?

CHARLIZE:

It was just absolutely amazing. It wasn't a large role, but to me that part was just so big, because it was so layered. And when you work with somebody like Bob, there's just no two ways about it. There's like four hundred ways about it.

I only worked on Men of Honor for three weeks, but I walked away with so much. Because Bob is the kind of actor who gives you the opportunity to really go there. And we really had to go there. I mean, we were both playing drunks.

We had lines like somebody telling him, I didn't know you had a daughter. And I'm like, this is my husband. And being completely obnoxious, being drunks. So you've got to sometimes do that all by yourself. But it's just such a gift when you work with an actor who actually takes you by the hand, and goes there with you. And he does even more than that. So I would love to work with Bob again, I really would.

NYROCK:

De Niro is quite an enigma to people. What's he really like?

CHARLIZE:

He's somebody who doesn't take himself too seriously. People think he's very serious. He is shy, but he's got a great sense of humor about things. And he's fearless, I mean absolutely serious.

That was a pretty funny sex scene with Matt Damon in Bagger Vance, where you kind of get caught by a kid with your pants down.

Yeah, that was cute. But I think he was a little disappointed, because maybe he expected a bra and panties, you know, like contemporary stuff. And then I was basically in his grandmother's underwear. The kid was like, I thought you were gonna look like one of them girls in Victoria's Secret.

NYROCK:

Why have you said that you will never work with Ben Affleck again after Reindeer Games? You seemed like a pretty hot couple in the movie.

CHARLIZE:

No, I didn't want to work with Ben again. I gotta say something about him to get him back for all his stuff about Charlize being very method and I'm a very giving actor. I'm gonna shoot him in the head! What the hell is that about? Everywhere I'm going I see this headline: Charlize is method, Ben a very giving actor.

NYROCK:

How have you managed to be something more in movies than just another pretty face?

CHARLIZE:

Well, I pay them off! I'd love to sit here and say that's all there is to it, but you've gotta have a checkbook handy. But seriously, that's extremely flattering. And I do think that earlier in my career, I did make a very conscious decision to make sure that I was doing work that wasn't necessarily given to me, and that people didn't necessarily think that I would be able to do.

But I'm still very attracted to those parts. I think it's the child in me saying, I'll show you. You know, when they say no, you can't do that. So I did that for a long time in my career, and I waited for parts to play myself just physically down a little bit. But I do feel like I'm at a place in my career now where I don't necessarily fret about that too much anymore.

NYROCK:

Does it take much effort to look as stunning as you do in Men of Honor?

CHARLIZE:

^{Charlize as Adele Invergordon
in The Legend of Bagger Vance}

I am human, and, yeah, I have very bad days. I have very talented people dress me and put my makeup on, stuff like that. But I do love that look, and I think it's maybe because I grew up on that old glamour. I grew up on Bette Davis movies, and Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe. And I think it may have been easier back then, because it was celebrated.

I think today women are very scared to celebrate themselves, because then they just get labeled. And I was victim to that very early in my career, where I would go into auditions, and I'd be wearing a big T shirt, a big baggy T shirt and loose jeans. You know, to try and show people that there was more to me than just that. Now, luckily, I'm at a place where I don't have to fear that anymore. And so I just ride it as hard as I can.

But that classic look is so great. When I do period movies, I can't believe that women wore hats all the time. And I don't even own a hat, things like that which I so wish we still had today. I don't know if it's conscious, it's just purely because I love it, I love that classic stuff.

NYROCK:

What's the greatest thrill of being an actress and immersing yourself in a role like this?

CHARLIZE:

All those little nuances, like coming up with a certain speech pattern or rhythm for the character. And doing a film in that period, and having to really celebrate what they wore back then, how they sat and how they spoke. You know, what the etiquette was back then for a lady. All of those things are like putting on a wig and transforming yourself, which I love. Women looked beautiful. Hey, I'm a girl, and we like to play dress-up.

NYROCK:

Who exactly is Charlize Theron, and what qualities would an actress have to have to play you in a movie?

CHARLIZE:

A lot of hair color! Hmm... A lot of high heels. But that's such a weird question. I don't necessarily sit in the bathtub and go, if somebody were to play me... I don't know, I might be wrong, but I feel that people think when you're pretty, that you take yourself seriously. And the person who would play me would definitely have to be fearless as far as making a fool out of themselves. Because I do that many times a day!

NYROCK:

What about that new Woody Allen movie, are you allowed to tell me anything about it?

CHARLIZE:

It's a forties detective story. Hey, that's all I'm gonna say.

NYROCK:

Is Woody in it?

CHARLIZE:

Yeah. He plays a detective. I have scenes just with Woody.

NYROCK:

What about Waking Up In Reno?

CHARLIZE:

I shot that already. That's when I had my trashy hair.

NYROCK:

That's the one where you shaved your eyebrows. Are you worried they may not grow back?

CHARLIZE:

It's just hair.

NYROCK:

Is there any long-term damage from all that stuff you're required to do in these movies?

CHARLIZE:

Yeah, really bad hair. I'll tell you a little inside secret. In Bagger Vance, we were gonna use my own hair. I still had the red from Reindeer Games and we started coloring it, and it didn't go too well. It became pink, which was cool with me! But it didn't fit the period. We just couldn't get the pink out.

So the wig that I wear in Bagger Vance is a wig that was made for Cider House Rules, actually. And we just cut it and styled it. I wanted to use my own hair, but unfortunately it just died on me.

NYROCK:

How did you get involved in The Yards?

CHARLIZE:

I'm a huge, huge fan of James Gray's other movie, Little Odessa. I remember seeing the movie and calling my agent, and asking what James Gray was doing purely because of Little Odessa. He was writing The Yards at that time, and I met him. This was two years before the movie even got the green light, and I was an absolute nobody.

So I met him and I said, I will do your dishes for seven years and mow your lawn if I can be in your next movie. And he said he didn't have a lawn! But I just really wanted to be in his next movie very early on like that.

NYROCK:

What were you thinking when you agreed to host "Saturday Night Live"?

CHARLIZE:

You say that, and I get a hole in my stomach! It's scary, because it's...live! You know, lots of people get to see it, and you don't get a second shot. I haven't been on a stage since I was a dancer, which was almost ten years ago. Whoa, time flies.

So I haven't had that experience for a while. But at the same time, I am completely scared. It's definitely nerve racking. Because I'm such a fan of the show, and so I don't want to go down in history as one of the people who ruined it.

NYROCK:

Do you think you'll ever get married?

CHARLIZE:

What the hell kind of question is that?

NYROCK:

Let's try this one. What do you want for Christmas?

CHARLIZE:

What do I want for Christmas? Let see... An Oscar.

NYROCK:

Do you think you've made it and you're there?

CHARLIZE:

You can never get to a place of comfort in this business. As soon as you hit that little cushy spot, somebody's gonna kick you out. So I have a constant need to do it better.

November 2000

Charlize's Filmography

Sweet Home Alabama (2001)
Curse of the Jade Scorpion, The (2001)
Sweet November (2001) .... Sara Deever
Wakin' Up In Reno (2001)
Legend of Bagger Vance, The (2000) .... Adele Invergordon
Men of Honor (2000) .... Gwen
Yards, The (2000) .... Erica Stoltz
Reindeer Games (2000) .... Ashley Mercer
Cider House Rules, The (1999) .... Candy Kendall
Astronaut's Wife, The (1999) .... Jillian Armacost
Mighty Joe Young (1998) .... Jill Young
Celebrity (1998) .... Supermodel
Hollywood Confidential (1997) (TV) .... Sally
Devil's Advocate, The (1997) .... Mary Ann Lomax
Trial and Error (1997) .... Billie Tyler, the Waitress
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996) (V) (uncredited) .... Young Woman ... aka Deadly Harvest (1996) (V)
That Thing You Do! (1996) .... Tina
2 Days in the Valley (1996) .... Helga Svelgen

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