Charlize Theron says she faced some gender discrimination early in her career.
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Charlize Theron says she suffered gender discrimination in 2003 Italian work
The Oscar winner starred in the 2003 film. Italian work alongside actors Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton, Jason Statham and Donald Sutherland. Like her famous male co-stars in the film, Theron, 44, had to undergo training before the cameras rolled, but she says she was forced to train for six more weeks than men.
“I realized that there were still a lot of misconceptions about women and gender. Although in that movie the action is really based on the cars, we had to physically do a lot of those things, “Theron, 44, said as he appeared at a virtual Comic-Con @ Home on Friday via IndieWire. “There was real pressure to achieve those stunts with the actors … there was a very unfair process that went with that. I was the only woman with a bunch of guys and I remember vividly receiving the schedule in our pre-production, and I had been scheduled for six more weeks of hard training than any of the guys. It was so insulting. “
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The actress said the situation “put a real fire under me …”.
“I thought, ‘Okay, you guys want to play this game, let’s go,'” he said. “I set out to beat all those guys. I vividly remember Mark Wahlberg, halfway through one of our training sessions, stopping and vomiting because I was nauseous from doing 360s. “
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Theron also discussed wanting to prove himself when he assumes action roles early in his career.
“When I started my action career, it was very important to sell the authenticity of ‘Yes, I can fight and I can defeat this guy and I can survive this,'” he said. “There was such a level of wanting to demonstrate that to audiences that for years they said, ‘No, a woman could never fight a boy of that size.'”
The actress recently starred on Netflix. The old guard, in which she played an immortal mercenary leading a team of fearless warriors like her. The film saw 72 million households tune in during its first week of release, according to the company.
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Beyond the lights), the movie has been a huge success, and Theron can’t believe it.
“He’s pretty nuts, right?” Theron recently said Variety, reacting to the number of people who have seen it. “It’s pretty crazy.”
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