Charlize Theron Covers HARPER’S BAZAAR’s October 2022 ‘Process’ Issue

Posted on September 22, 2022

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In our cover story, Josh Olins captures Charlize Theron at the peak of her prowess as a Hollywood power player.” says Samira Nasr, Editor in Chief, Harper’s BAZAAR. “Theron speaks candidly to our executive editor, Leah Chernikoff, about her desire to try to change some of Hollywood’s systemic issues, in particular the misogyny she experienced as a young actress, as she continues to flex her producing chops alongside her acting ones.”

 

 

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On her primary motivation for starring in the Netflix film, The School for Good and Evil, a kind of Harry Potter meets Sleeping Beauty hybrid based on the popular children’s fantasy fairy-tale book series: “The biggest driver for me was that it potentially could be something that my kids would enjoy”

On the pervasive feeling of powerlessness by women in Hollywood, by having no say in the way they look or how they’re dressed:
 “Having absolutely no control over what you’re wearing is a big one that really f***ing annoyed me for years. Having some guy make you have a fitting almost in front of them—stuff like that, it’s really belittling,” Theron explains. “When I started, there was no conversation around it. It was like, ‘This is what you’re wearing.’ And I remember one movie in particular, this male director who just kept bringing me in, fitting after fitting after fitting after… And it was just so obvious that it was to do with my sexuality and how f****able they could make me in the movie. And when I started out, that was just kind of the norm.”

On raising kids in America: “I didn’t grow up in America,” Theron says, “so I always find myself kind of trying to keep my head above water with the school system and exams, because it’s not familiar to me. My education was just so different than what my kids are having in America. And so there are a lot of bells and whistles that come with being a parent that I didn’t grow up with.”

On crediting her mother Gerda Maritz, as well as coming of age in South Africa during apartheid, with fostering her awareness of the larger world: “Growing up in South Africa, being for many years at the epicenter of what was a global political issue and having all of that turmoil around me, I think made me very aware that everything was so interconnected,” she says. It’s something she is making a concerted effort to impart to her kids. “I want them to always be curious—curious about how other people live, where other people live,” she says. “Because I think the greatest gift I can give them as a parent is to open their eyes to outside of their bubble.”

On her relationship to fame now, and whether taking on projects where she’s solely behind the camera is reflective of a desire to step back from the spotlight: “Working more isn’t, I think, going to change my level of fame. It just has always been a mediocre ride. I’ve never been one of those people that’s at a Kim Kardashian level. But I feel like it’s just always been this thing.”

Reflecting on her star power possibly having less currency than it once did: “I will say, back in the day, it used to be like, you want to have some of this fame so you can go make the sh*t that you really want to make,” she says. “But now it’s like, I pitch sh*t all day long and people are like, ‘No, thanks.’ I’m like, ‘I guess that’s not cash in the bank anymore.’ And that’s nice. It’s nice that you’re making things on the merit of how good they are versus this idea of, like, ‘Oh, you’re this thing, and we want to be in business with that thing.’”

 

 

[Photo Credit: Josh Olins for Harper’s Bazaar Magazine]

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