The actor Charlize Theron simply called “God”
Surely there’s no higher compliment to bestow upon a mere mortal?
There’s greatness and then there’s godliness, and as we rank people, the ‘god tier’ is the ultimate, unbeatable level where only the best of the best of the best are granted access. It’s the place where everyone strives to be, and so while Charlize Theron might be widely recognised as great, she views another actor as a god.
Theron has enjoyed a truly incredible career so far, and it all comes down to her boldness. There’s no denying she’s a beautiful woman, and when she first broke out, it was a classic case of being cast almost exclusively as the love interest, the wife, the attractive young damsel in need of help—or something along those lines.
But that never sat right with her. Theron wanted to be a serious actor and worked hard to make that happen. She studied her craft, strived to get better, and, crucially, she refused to stagnate even though it would have been easier. “A lot of people were saying, ‘You should just hit while the iron’s hot,’” she recalled of an early moment when, after playing Helga Svelgen in 2 Days in the Valley, the industry simply wanted her to replicate it over and over.
She didn’t want to do that, though, adding, “But playing the same part over and over doesn’t leave you with any longevity.”
“I knew it was going to be harder for me, because of what I look like, to branch out to different kinds of roles,” Theron said, genuinely feeling like her beauty might hold her back in a way. But she refused to let it. All of Theron’s ultimate victories have come in moments where she’s pushed far beyond the kinds of characters Hollywood might expect from her, especially something like Monster, where she utterly transformed into Aileen Wuornos for a staggering and visceral performance as the murderer, earning herself an Oscar for ‘Best Actress’ along with countless other nominations for the role.
So much of Theron’s drive to do that came from looking up to that god-tier. She studied the careers of other actors she loved and tried to follow their lead, learning from them but also being inspired by their bravery, their variety and their daring role choices.
“Frances McDormand is God,” she said plainly to Letterboxd – and so that’s who she looked up to. Celebrating her movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as one of her four favourites, calling it “amazing” as another key example of an actor pushing themselves into a dark and visceral place for a role, Theron looks up to McDormand as inspiration for her own efforts.
In 2005, the inspiration was in person as the pair starred together in North Country, working side by side on a movie about a historic sexual assault case, bringing the two together in exactly the kind of film they both truly thrive in; something dark, something intense and something far beyond the typecasts Hollywood initially wanted to trap them in.
