“He’s overweight and can barely fight”: When Charlize Theron openly slammed Steven Seagal
Charlize Theron has worked with some of the greatest male actors of her generation. In Mad Max: Fury Road, she starred opposite Tom Hardy’s gruff take on the title character. From there, she played Will Smith’s wife-turned-enemy in the offbeat superhero flick Hancock and got her big break in The Devil’s Advocate, which also featured Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino.
The South African actor has also proven herself more than capable of performing in what would have traditionally been seen as ‘male roles’. Take the 2017 action film Atomic Blonde, for example. Theron plays Lorraine Broughton, an MI6 agent dispatched to recover sensitive information about double agents from Cold War-era Berlin. This involves lots and lots of fighting, taking Theron into the heavily male-dominated subgenre of ‘one-man army’ movies.
As she explained to Howard Stern on his radio show, Theron’s love of martial arts extends beyond her on-screen roles. She took this opportunity to slam a fellow action star, one with an already dubious reputation. “At night, I’ll go online to watch fighters or watch people fight, and you always come across that odd Seagal video of him ‘fighting’ in Japan, but he really isn’t,” she said. “He’s just incredibly overweight and pushing people. He’s overweight and can barely fight… look it up; it’s ridiculous… He’s shoving people by the face; it’s a whole setup.”
Theron was very clear about why she had no problem being so rude about Seagal’s fighting ability. “Because he’s not very nice to women,” she explained. “So, fuck you!”
Of course, Theron isn’t the only big name that has publicly brought up Seagal’s various run-ins with the law over the years. The Under Siege star has been accused by multiple women of discrimination, harassment, and even sexual assault. Combine this with his outspoken adoration of Vladimir Putin, and you can see why he has very few friends in Hollywood.
Despite Theron’s opinion of his ability, Seagal’s qualifications in the fighting world speak for themselves. He’s a 7th dan black belt in the Japanese martial art aikido and became the first American to teach the practice in a Japanese dojo. He claims to have taught agents from the CIA how to fight, but there is no evidence to support this. He helped train former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida, who credited the actor with helping him perfect the kick that knocked out UFC legend Randy Couture in a 2011 fight. That was all a long time ago, though.
It’s not like Theron is a slouch, either. During training for Atomic Blonde, she repeatedly clenched her jaw so hard during training that she needed surgery to repair her cracked teeth. She also regularly sparred with Reeves, who was working on John Wick: Chapter 2. Her other on-set bumps include tearing a stomach muscle while making Snow White and the Huntsman and almost breaking her neck after messing up a handspring during filming for Æon Flux.
Genuine fighting credentials really have nothing to do with this story. Theron used her platform to call out a man who has a lot to answer for, bringing his alleged misdeeds to a wider audience. That is way more badass than any fight scene in any action flick could ever be.
