“I was terrified”: the role Charlize Theron wishes she could do over again
The fluctuations that Charlize Theron experienced in her career are a microcosm of the unfortunate challenges that many great female actors face when Hollywood deems that they are ‘past their prime’.
While Theron was discovered by Tom Hanks in That Thing You Do! and became a heartthrob for the next decade, it took a complete physical transformation into playing a serial killer for the Patty Jenkins crime film Monster for her to prove that she was a serious actor.
Despite the fact that she won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’ for her Monster performance, she wasn’t always offered roles that were deserving of her talent; she even managed some incredible turns in films like North County and Young Adult, which weren’t widely seen or appreciated enough. While she had some experience in making action films like The Italian Job and Reindeer Games, Theron was nonetheless an unusual choice for George Miller to cast in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Miller had been trying to make a fourth film in the Mad Max franchise for decades, but had consistently run into issues regarding financing. Eventually, it became impossible for him to bring back Mel Gibson to reprise his role, so he began a search for a new actor to play Max and settled on Tom Hardy. While it was technically a continuation of the first three films, Mad Max: Fury Road introduced a bold new hero in Imperator Furiosa, who would be brought to the screen by Theron.
The film had the makings of a disaster on paper, as Miller’s plans seemed too wild to realise, and the production faced multiple issues and delays, with Theron even admitting that she felt out of her depth working on such an ambitious endeavour, and wasn’t sure how her performance would come across.
“I was terrified making that movie,” she revealed, “In the hands of George Miller, you know you’re going to enter this fever-dream-like world, but his process was so insular. I almost wish I could do the movie over again.”
Mad Max: Fury Road was an admittedly challenging film to describe in terms of narrative, as it basically consists of one long chase. Theron may have felt like she didn’t have a grasp on the character while on set, which was only exacerbated because she didn’t get along with Hardy. Even though the industry was doubting Mad Max: Fury Road up until its release, everything changed when people finally got a chance to see it.
Any expectation for what it would be was exceeded tenfold, as Miller had made an action masterpiece that befuddled filmmakers because of the sheer danger involved. While Hardy proved to be a more than suitable replacement for Gibson, it was Theron who was the standout from the film, as Furiosa instantly solidified herself as one of the greatest contemporary action heroes.
Mad Max: Fury Road wasn’t just a comeback for Miller, but a film that changed the direction of Theron’s career because she became an action star known for doing her own stunts. In addition to the spy thriller Atomic Blonde and The Old Guard series of comic book adaptations, she joined the Fast & Furious series as the villain Cypher and just recently had another Netflix hit with the brutal survival thriller Apex.
