With 'Burning Plain' and Other Work, Charlize Theron Pushes to ...
Guillermo Arriaga's "The Burning Plain" is a slow-simmer sort of film, taking every moment of its nearly two hours to bring its story of two families connected by tragedy to a boil. But it takes just 20 seconds to expose -- literally, expose -- its star, Charlize Theron.
Oh, yes, the gorgeous former model is naked.
But the scene leaves you far more uneasy than aroused. As mysterious loner Sylvia, Theron cuts a harsh, flawed figure in the cold, bluish light of morning. "Get out," she snaps to a man sleeping in her bed.
And she doesn't bother saying goodbye when he leaves.
"When I read the script I thought it was a great opening to the character," Theron says of her stark introduction, which might have caused any other actress to lobby for a rewrite. "You start asking questions immediately as soon as you see it. . . . 'Who is this woman? Who would be that cold to the man that she wakes up with?' "
Playing unlikable characters is nothing new to Theron, who won an Oscar in 2004 for her physically and emotionally unflattering turn as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in "Monster."
The role of Sylvia gave Theron a chance to star in the directorial debut of Arriaga, who is best known as the screenwriter for the acclaimed indies "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams." Interwoven story lines and an aura of mystery around characters and their hidden emotional baggage -- Arriaga's stock in trade -- ran through those films, as they do in "The Burning Plain."
The movie, which opens Friday, cuts between the story of Sylvia and that of two families living in a small town near the border of New Mexico and Mexico. Another plotline involves a plane crash that leaves a little girl facing the possibility of losing her only caregiver, her father.
"Guillermo really writes how we think," Theron says. Publicly, Sylvia is a graceful, whip-smart restaurateur, but privately she is drowning in a sea of self-destruction. "How can she run a restaurant and behave how she is?" Theron asks. "She just had a terrible accident happen in her life, and it really sort of marked her. I like that not everything is answered. . . . You want to live in a society that is dealt with and done with, and that's not life. Life is not done with and dealt with."
Theron is often as terse as her character when talking about her life and her work, which lately has included producing a slate of movies and even television pilots under the banner of her production company Denver and Delilah Films (named for her two dogs).
Ask her what a day in the life of Charlize Theron is like (perhaps expecting an answer that involves tales of spending time with her longtime boyfriend, Stuart Townsend) and she'll answer: "I work. I have an office. I have a whole team of people. . . . I don't ever want to have my days pass me and be 80 and go, '[Expletive], where did it all go?' "
The South Africa native softens a bit when asked about her Africa Outreach Project, which began as an HIV-AIDS education project in her homeland and has since broadened to include computer training and infrastructure projects, which she sees as a natural extension of HIV prevention. "I'm very passionate about it," she says, ticking off a list of the organization's accomplishments, including planning soccer fields for children in conjunction with the World Cup's arrival in the nation next year.
So what's next for Theron the actress? Are there dream roles? No, she answers flatly. Roles couldn't matter less.
"For me, it's about the story," she says. "I think it always has to go back to stories. As an actor, you're just a canvas to tell it." There is no recipe for choosing a role, she explains. "If something stays with me, or it's a world that I'm interested in, or people I'm interested in . . . when those things feel right, you just have to believe and jump off the cliff."
Source: Washington Post
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