Charlize Theron Quotations | Page 3

I do think that when you're specifically working in a country like South Africa, you have to be able to be aware of the cultural truth of what people are raised in and believe in and how they function within their society.

I don't like rehearsal.

I think good filmmaking is when you really hold the mirror up truthfully, and you don't angle it and you don't hide things with smoke and mirrors.

I just want to make good movies. Honestly, the only difference for me with this stuff is that there is more people on the set.

I am South African and I am so aware, even as a white, privileged South African, that even within our community of privilege the idea of talking about sex or sexual preference or sexual identity or anything like that was just, nobody ever did that and nobody ever felt comfortable doing that.

People always say to me, "What's wrong with Hollywood? They don't want to make female-driven movies." And that's not where the problem lies. It lies with us, in society. When we make these movies, nobody goes to see them.

The thing I noticed is that a lot of times great material can get ruined if its not in the right hands.

I do have a sense of fear every day going to work, but I think it's something that I like. I mean I do like the feeling of waking up on my own, having this moment of like: "Oh, f**k, I hope I can do this today!" Because it makes you realise that you're working with material or you're working with a director or you're working with a cast and they're keeping you on your toes.

It's pretty impossible to be a South African and not have been personally affected by HIV or AIDS.

The tone is so important to a film, and that tone can really make something fall or succeed.

Oh my God I am so cool.

I'm interested in human behavior, and what happened in my family life is definitely not a unique story. There are aspects of that I'm sure you can see through the work. But I'm just looking for something that touches me.

The fabric of my life is under my skin; [but] it's definitely not something that comes up in a conscious way when I read material. I have an incredible relationship with my mom, so I'm fascinated by mothers who do not have that. But I've never done anything that resembled my life. People always jump to that conclusion, and I wish life were that simple, but it's not.

One thing can make many other things happen.

I love the idea of longevity in this career. But [producing] is not about, "Let me do this because this might happen 20 years down the line." Sleepwalking wasn't a vehicle for me, it was a film that pushed the ­envelope. I want to produce good stories, versus creating a niche where I can look after myself as an actor.

A while back there was this fad where a big star [would get] a producing credit and you'd ask around, and people were like, "No, they didn't produce, they just took the credit." I was flabbergasted. So when I started, people were weirded out by the fact that I was like, "How long is our prep? I'll come a week before that." They were like, "We're not shooting for six weeks."

I've never been a fan of labels. I think its very easy to kind of look at somebody and just kind of throw a label on them 'They're crazy.'

I want to be in a good movie, and so the narrative is way more important.

I don't really watch a lot of television, and I would watch mindless, mindless television.

Women are not allowed to be [complicated] in our society. We're comfortable seeing women as great mothers, and then we're comfortable seeing them as hookers, but there's no in-between.

Boys don't really like big nerdy glasses. Not so much.

I feel like I know South Africans. I feel like I know our culture.

I don't believe in making five-year plans. I don't want to say, "Yes, I want to have children in the next five years," because I don't know. I've always known that I'd like to be a mom, but I don't want to live by a schedule. If I [did], I wouldn't be living in the moment.

You just don't know if you'll be around tomorrow. You just don't.

I'm open to anything, dude. I'm open to anything. That's what I would ask the aliens. I'd be like, "Do you watch 'Game of Thrones?'"

Other than vaccines and finding a cure, most funding goes toward putting people on treatment. That's completely valid and I understand that, but it's never how we're going to stop AIDS.

It's so great as an actor to get the opportunity to do something that's incredibly truthful.

Whatever field you can do that, that's where you want to do it, and I think that's why people like David Fincher and Ridley Scott are interested in it, too, because when you sit down on a meeting in HBO and they're like, "More, more." You're just like, "Oh yeah, I love this." Sometimes it's a little harder in film. I think also it's a great audience, take advantage of it. It's a great audience.

I think some of the most creative work is coming out of television. I felt it's very immediate and I like that. It's really fast. It's got a pace to it, and that's why I think everybody in my field wants to just do good material.

We value men more than women... straight love more than gay love... white skin more than black skin... and adults more than adolescents.

I don't try to kind of go for the overly sympathetic. I don't really like sympathy; I don't like it for myself. Sometimes sympathy you feel like, you're kind of trying to victimize someone.

Actors - we're selfish, but we can't think about the work in that kind of selfish manner. I think that you have to step away from yourself, if you're going to do it. Otherwise don't do it; otherwise why do it?

You have to be able to feel like you can play way outside of the box. If you're with a great filmmaker and someone you can trust, that's encouraged, and Seth was that kind of filmmaker and co-star.

I've seen people talk about how they stopped polio, that was a generation that came together and said, "Let's do this." I think in the AIDS community we've become so complacent in that, it's like we just plateaued... We've completely neglected a whole young generation that is now highly infected.

When I find something that I really like and I can get it off, then I put my time and energy into that because it is a lot of work.

I tend to, if I decide to do a job, want to be able to trust my director.

I think since I did Monster I really started understanding how hard it is for first time directors. I think there's a lot of great stories out there, but it's high risk.

It [Hancock] happens to be a big budget film and big star like Will Smith, but it actually has a lot of weight to it. But it was very smart and very intelligent and had this kind of historical element to it that I was fascinated by. It's not silly. It's not stupid. It's fun, but I think it's smart. I think Akiva [Goldsman] writes really interesting material and there you have it.

At the end of the day, I'd much rather do a piece about people in a story that I find riveting and intriguing and moving, versus really carrying some kind of heavy political agenda on my sleeve. That's not who I am.

You're very in tune with, because actors are all different, and it's very tricky when you throw us all together because we all work differently. You want to get the best work out of every individual actor.

Remember I came to Albuquerque to do a hair and makeup test and wardrobe fitting; you guys were already shooting. It's tough when the movie's already started and you kind of show up. You're the new kid on the block. I walked onto the set and Tommy [Lee Jones] was about to do the scene. I just kind of walked up to him. I was shaking, but I just gave him this big hug and he just had nothing to say. He was like, 'Gotta go to work now.' I had a great time working with him."

Fran McDormand was great because she said, 'What I used to do when I worked with him was I would just walk on the set and I would give him a big hug. Somehow his guard would just drop.' So I took that advice.

Tommy [ Lee Jones] doesn't suffer fools easily. I think everybody knows that, but I have great respect for someone that's very direct and very honest. I don't have thin skin so I'm okay with that.

I met a woman in Albuquerque and she came and hung out with me in the trailer. It was really just more to kind of really understand my biggest concern was always the interrogation scenes. Remember, that's why I really wanted to meet somebody because you see those scenes on TV so much.

We know how much our careers mean to us,

This year has proven to make those kind of films you don't need to make them feel like medicine, you can make them powerful and still entertaining.

Besides, ... Im not a big pampering girl anyway.

You can't control those things. When they happen, it's great, but if you put too much emphasis on that, you lose track of what you're supposed to be doing and the work itself.

We'd have dinner with them. We'd bowl, we went snowmobiling and ice fishing. And they started trusting us. They really wanted us to tell the story right.

The thing that's great about this story is it's not just about the first class action sexual harassment case, ... It's really also about this community and about people just trying to survive.

But my natural inkling isn't really to go do those kinds of films, so I really wanted to go experience that and see what is interesting in that genre and what to do with it and come up with a female hero that wasn't the perfect heroine. She was very flawed and very dark. I liked that a lot about her.

Action films have been very testosterone-driven, not that that's a bad thing. But there is an interesting sexuality that I don't think has been that well explored in that action world, which is something women could bring to that genre.

People said, 'Oh, you're doing another ugly movie,'

People said, 'Oh, you're doing another ugly movie,'  ... I said, 'No, I'm doing another film about real people, and it's not about ugly vs. anything.' It's about searching for that constant truth, and I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night if I know I didn't search for that truth and implement it. I don't know how else to do it as an actor.

People said, 'Oh, you're doing another ugly movie,' ... I said, 'No, I'm doing another film about real people, and it's not about ugly vs. anything.' It's about searching for that constant truth, and I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night if I know I didn't search for that truth and implement it. I don't know how else to do it as an actor.

There's only so much you can do with the material you're given, ... A lot of films are very male-oriented, but this is a male-dominated industry. Let's not lie. I don't care what character I play as long as it's an honest exploration.

This case was only settled seven years ago, and you go, 'How dare you sit back as a young female and think the feminist movement happened in the '60s, some bras were burned and now everything is fine'?

In many ways, my mother is my audience, so I do listen to her advice.

If people, critics respond to the film there, it starts a nice little wave of chat, which for a movie like 'North Country' is really important. It's one of those films that travels by word of mouth.

I'm happy for people who want to get married but it's not my thing, ... I'm extremely happy in my relationship and I would love to have kids.

I just went through that, so for me to be thinking about it again would just seem very selfish,

I'm proud to continue supporting Global Green's smart climate solutions by riding to the Emmys in a fuel-efficient hybrid. In the aftermath of Katrina, we especially need to do everything we can to conserve gas and other energy resources such as driving fuel-efficient cars.

The celebrity status in Hollywood has gotten really out of control,

I'm going to kiss your (butt) too - but literally.

Not to sound on a pedestal about women, but the reality is, we bring a completely different element to it just because we are women,

No matter how sexual this character is and how comfortable she is with her sexuality, we obviously knew that we couldn't go as far with the outfits as Peter had designed for her. We still tried to stay true to that element and the knowledge that she's very independent and very comfortable within her skin. She's not shy. She's a very strong person. When you play with those elements of sexuality, it makes it really fun.

It's our job as filmmakers to reflect the world right now, and this year has proven that you can make these movies and make them not taste like medicine.

The mine was kind of this very mysterious thing for all of the women, ... In there, they realized pretty quickly that they were taking jobs where there weren't jobs to be taken. And that these guys were going to try and break them down so that they would just leave.

It took me awhile, to be honest, because this was so extremely foreign to me. I had never done anything in the genre and I didn't feel like an expert. So, it took me a while to sit with Karyn and understand how I was going to service this. I very rarely jump into something and go, 'Oh, my God, I know I have to do this.' And, that's usually a good sign for me.

I had big dreams when I came here, but this is an incredibly amazing gift, ... If somebody had told me then that this would have happened one day, I would have laughed in their face.

I had big dreams when I came here, but this is an incredibly amazing gift ... two cherries on top of the cake.

because thanks to women like her, I get to work and live in a very safe environment. I respect women who come from harsher landscapes, where survival is much harder than in cities, because they don't wallow in self-pity. They have to survive, so they get up and move on.

I didn't know about the comic and I'm not really very familiar with that genre, so it was a huge challenge for me.

They would yell everything you saw in the movie and then they'd look back at Woody and go, 'Yeah, Woody, you're the man! We love you Woody!' and then they'd turn back to me, 'Take your top off!'

It was a combination of my painkillers and the fact that everybody was paying tribute to this incredible woman, this incredible actress, so I had to go to the physical aspect of kissing her a**,

It was a combination of my painkillers (for a neck injury) and the fact that everybody was paying tribute to this incredible woman, this incredible actress, so I had to go to the physical aspect of kissing her (bottom), ... She loved it. She said it was the best she's had all year.

After Monster, when I started telling people about this story, some people said 'Oh, you're doing another ugly film'.

And the process is very physical, which is something I always wanted to do, since I came from a ballet background and I really like telling stories with my body. That was the challenge... . I don't want to keep repeating myself.

a very unique girl, a free spirit. I see all the beauty and childlike innocence in life.

All we discussed (with Caro) was what is the truth of this woman and the life that she's led. All of a sudden, when you get the answer to the emotional side, the physical elements just come quite organically.

Then they started telling me stories about how this abuse didn't just affect them. It affected their children when they went to school, when they went to go play hockey. It wasn't just something that happened at work and then it was done. It really bled into the community and there was just this constant fight.

It's always nerve wracking. Any red carpet is always nerve wracking.

It's a landmark case, and it changed the face of sexual harassment laws in corporate America,

It's a horrid, horrid smell and you kind of get used to it after a while, but the first time we went in there, it was really noisy and we were a little concerned about that and then I was more concerned about the smell, because it was just so strong. One of the mine consultants turned to me and said, 'That's the smell of money,' and I was like, I'll just think of it that way.

It's so hush hush that they have sworn everyone to absolute secrecy and haven't revealed the exact date or location yet.

There were 400 of them, and they actually worked in the mine where this had happened,

It was a very foreign genre to me,

This is very surreal for me because two years ago, I stood right here and won my Oscar for 'Monster.

I can't change the way I look nor can I sit back and let that rule my life when I know in my heart that I'm a real girl,

I don't want to ever step on anybody's life,

I couldn't change how people thought of me, ... I had to believe someone would come along and believe in me enough to give me a chance, and that's what happened.

And didn't just happen in Minnesota, ... Anita Hill wasn't an isolated case. There are cases everywhere. And I don't think it's stopped.