Charlize Theron: “My Mother Always Told Me That I Was Born Determined”

The ad, directed by Romain Gavras, who succeeds Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Jean-Jacques Annaud and Nick Knight, looks like an Ingres painting, with the Oscar-winning actress from “Monster” and the heroine of “Mad Max: Fury Road” as the main character. In other words, a lascivious woman, certainly, intoxicating, certainly, but conquering, assumed, even amused by her status as a vestal virgin. Faced with this unprecedented spectacle, the little boy exclaims: “She’s daddy’s new wife!” “Astonishment in the house, the dad happens to be the husband of the author of these lines, who herself happens to be the physical opposite of Charlize Theron. Cut.

It’s sexy, addictive, sunny, super easy to wear, everything I love.

On the phone, we don’t dare tell the star anything about this anecdote that has become a family legend, even though she is ultra-warm and willing to talk about her own children, “two girls that I raised in the same way, under the same roof, but who are as different as possible, and very different from me!” The career of Charlize Theron, born on a farm in South Africa, passionate about dance, is remarkable, as nothing predestined her to become one of the most respected actresses and producers in Hollywood. For almost twenty years, she has had a perfect love story with the perfume J’Adore by Dior, whose new fragrance, L’Or de J’Adore, by Francis Kurkdjian, was released in September – “it’s sexy, addictive, sunny, super easy to wear, everything I love.”

A remarkable start

The house muse remembers their beginnings as if it were yesterday. “It was when “Monster” came out, which was being talked about a lot at the time.” An understatement, since the film by Patty Jenkins, in which Charlize Theron, unrecognizable, plays a prostitute turned serial killer, hits hard and everyone agrees. “My team received a phone call, the house of Dior wanted to work with me on this perfume. I was all the more stunned because I had just come out of months of grueling filming where, for the needs of the script, I had physically transformed myself. I was speechless, and then we started thinking about the campaign.” A form of collaboration was set up, “it was a bit like designing a film, a character: someone other than me, but with whom I could identify.” The actress succeeds in this feat, with the complicity of directors who have become friends for some of them, of summoning a heroine who is at once sublime, divine, almost unreal, while escaping the “blonde” fantasy, the famous “male gaze”, to invest the field of sisterhood. “I never wanted this creature to look like me, I wanted her to be better than me, to say how courageous, creative, audacious women are!”

No matter who you are, what you do, you deserve to be treated with respect.

Because Charlize Theron knows clichés. About “Monster”, which earned her an avalanche of awards, including the Oscar for best actress, the actress recalls “the immense gift” that it represented. “I was at a point in my career where I was fighting to escape stereotypes, I couldn’t take it anymore, and I despaired of succeeding. Not only did Patty Jenkins offer me this role, but she was deeply convinced that I could do it. It’s a grace of life, recognition.” From the day she finally freed herself from this model image that stuck to her skin, the actress ventured everywhere: action films, dramas, comedies, committed scores, often with a strong physical charge. She co-produced “Scandal”, which returns to the fall of the president of Fox News, accused of sexual harassment by his journalists. “An important film, because we are at an important moment. Everything we are fighting for through the #MeToo movement must be able to serve all women. No matter who you are, where you work, what you do, you deserve to be treated with respect, not to be harassed, manipulated, threatened!”

It is difficult, through this plea, not to perceive the visceral commitment, drawn from a chaotic childhood, and the whole temperament of Charlize Theron. A legacy from her mother from whom she is inseparable. “My mother always told me that I was born determined (“I was born with a real drive”), but the education she gave me played a big part: work hard, go for it, not be afraid to speak out, even when we are asked to shut up.” And the actress laughs at it. “I like to work hard, it drives people crazy. Even when I was a young dancer, I always wanted to rehearse more, go to the studio… I thought that the more you worked, the more you mastered, which is obviously not true, but I’m not the type to sit around complaining because things aren’t going my way.” The minutes go by, we are under its spell. This is Charlize Theron’s strength: she is unlike anyone else, but speaks to everyone. The 8-year-old child, in front of his TV, was not mistaken.

FROM TAC to TAC

George V Magazine – Your favorite movie?

Charlize Theron. – “Too difficult a question, I can answer you anything and everything: “Jaws”! When you are an astronaut, it is because you love space, and not this or that corner of the sky. For me, cinema is the same, it is what I love most in the world after my children.”

George V Magazine – The book you have given the most?

CT – “I love giving books as gifts, but my favorite is ‘Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight’, a novel by Alexandra Fuller about her childhood in Zimbabwe. I envy those who discover it.” What music do you like to listen to as a family? “That concept doesn’t exist in our house [Laughs]! My choices are constantly rejected, it’s my daughters who decide. I sometimes try to introduce them to music from the 1990s, but they say, ‘Mom, no.'”

George V Magazine – The artist who inspires you?

CT – “I was in Paris in the spring for the Dior show, and I had the chance to visit the Faith Ringgold exhibition at the Picasso Museum. I came away overwhelmed by her commitment, her speech, her tenacity, she is truly a “badass”, I have immense respect for her!” A director with whom you would like to work? “I am working on a film project with Alfonso Cuarón, “Jane”, which tells the life of the writer Philip K. Dick through the fictional point of view of his twin sister, who died at 6 weeks. Terribly exciting.”