Celebrities
Becca Monaghan
Sep 24, 2022
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Charlize Theron candidly opened up about the uncomfortable situations in the earlier days of her career.
The 47-year-old actress spoke with Harper's Bazaar about a "belittling" experience that frustrated her for years.
She said, "Having absolutely no control over what you’re wearing is a big one that really f****** annoyed me for years," before adding: "Having some guy make you have a fitting almost in front of them—stuff like that, it’s really belittling. When I started, there was no conversation around it. It was like, ‘this is what you’re wearing'."
The actress recalled one movie where an unnamed male director continuously brought her in for fittings.
"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," she added.
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When Theron launched her production company in 2003, she still experienced pressure from film financers to have her and other actresses portrayed in a sexualised way.
"There’s a natural fight in me to want to create environments that feel like the things that I wish I had 30 years ago when I started," she said, adding that, as a producer, "I don't always get it right."
After years of experience, however, she said: "I know what the f***'s going on."
Her perspective of fame also shifted, saying she's "never been one of those people that’s at a Kim Kardashian level".
"I feel like I’m at a place where it is what it is," she said. "Working more isn’t, I think, going to change my level of fame. It just has always been a mediocre ride."
She added: "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 shit that you really want to make.
"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.'"
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