Charlize Theron on Her “North Country” Co-Star Frances McDormand: “Frances, to me, is as good as they come. I've embarrassed her many times in the past by gushing. She is the ultimate actress for me to follow. She's got balls. She is, if you want to say brave, she is brave. There is no limit when it comes to her. Then [she’s] such an incredible human being on top of it. Working with somebody like that, you go to work and realize the bar is just raised and you are playing with the big boys when you are working with this cast. Every day I realized that.
There are moments in this film, or a few of them, where what I do as an actor is I don't… My character doesn't know what Lou Gehrig’s is and so I didn't really go and read up. I know what it is, but I didn't want to focus on that because there is something so heartbreaking about Josey not knowing anything about this disease and watching her really good friend deteriorate that way. I think the only thing I could compare it to is 20 years ago when people started dying of AIDS and we had no idea what that disease was, yet we saw people in front of our eyes just day by day deteriorating, people that we loved. I couldn't imagine how painful that must have been for her to not really know what this disease was about.
Frances did a ton of research on it. It was very important for her to do that truthfully and to not just be an indulgent actor playing somebody sick. I think she does it so beautiful and truthfully and brave, dramatic. She's so strong about it. I'm a huge fan.”
Charlize Theron on Physically Transforming for “North Country” and “Monster:” “The physical aspect really comes from understanding the emotional journey. I really believe that. I never sit down and say, 'Well, I want to have this hair and I want to do this and…' It's never that mechanical for me.
I've been very lucky to work with a make-up artist again, which is Toni G. who did 'Monster' with me, who understands the emotional aspect of it so well. Who really does the same amount of research that I do, to really understand emotionally where this person has traveled. Then go, ‘What marks did that leave on this person?’ Because that's what makes them look the way they do.
I think actors, some actors know that, the actors that I admire, I think Johnny Depp said, 'If you keep serving roast beef, people are going to get bored.' You have to pay attention to the fact that you are the vehicle. Actors are vehicles to serve the greater story and I think if you started thinking about everything in terms of you and make everything about you, it becomes very selfish. So I don't ever question anything for Charlize, but I question everything for the character. And that truth…is sometimes very ugly, but it’s the truth. Therefore I feel like it's my responsibility.
There was a lot of ugliness in Aileen [Wuornos] but I didn't just look at that, but I had to pay attention to that just as much. I think people are very complicated and that's why I love this job because I am fascinated by human nature. I am fascinated about what the outside appearance might be and what's really going on deep inside. I am fascinated by, in this case, what happens to people when they are put in horrible circumstances and they have to survive and what they will do to survive? I say that for the men, because it was really survival for them as well, just as much as it was for us. And we had to understand where they came from as well.
We couldn't just say, ‘Men bad. Women good.’ We had to understand that it was their bread and butter as well. Their livelihoods as well. If they didn't work then their families were going to suffer from it just as much. It doesn't justify the behavior, but I can understand where the behavior comes from then. Also even the ones that didn't do anything horrible, that couldn't say anything. The men who weren't bad, that stood by because they knew if they said something they would get fired.”
Part 3: Charlize Theron on Getting Physical in "Aeon Flux"
