Charlize Theron refuses to take roles that require extreme body transformations
Fast X star Charlize Theron has revealed that she has retired from taking on roles that require her to undertake extreme body transformations. Regarding gaining weight for a part, something she has done more than once in the past, she said because of her age, “You can’t take it off”.
“I will never, ever do a movie again and say, ‘Yeah, I’ll gain 40 pounds.’ I will never do it again because you can’t take it off,” Theron told Allure in a new interview. “When I was 27, I did Monster. I lost 30 pounds, like, overnight. I missed three meals and I was back to my normal weight.”
Notably, Theron’s performance as the notorious serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s Monster was widely acclaimed, and she took home ‘Best Actress’ at the Academy Awards. She has previously reflected on easily losing the weight she gained for that role, but filming 2018’s Tully made her realise shedding weight isn’t as easy anymore.
“Then I did it at 43 for Tully, and I remember a year into trying to lose the weight, I called my doctor and I said, ‘I think I’m dying because I cannot lose this weight.’ And he was like, ‘You’re over 40. Calm down. Your metabolism is not what it was.’ Nobody wants to hear that,” Theron continued.
The South African actor said: “I’ve always found it so funny when I’ve gained weight for movies and then had to go onto a red carpet. I call [my stylist, Leslie Fremar] and say, ‘I’m doing this movie about postpartum depression and I’ve gained like 40 pounds.’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! How am I gonna dress you?’ It’s not something that you can just figure out last minute… She’s put a lot of blazers over open backs for me.”
Theron explained that getting older hasn’t just made losing weight much harder. She expressed that it “bums her out” when she hurts herself shooting action movies, “I take way longer to heal than I did in my 20s.”
“More than my face, I wish I had my 25-year-old body that I can just throw against the wall and not even hurt tomorrow,” Theron concluded. “Now, if I don’t work out for three days and I go back to the gym, I can’t walk. I can’t sit down on the toilet.”
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