They can laugh about it now. Charlize Theron revealed in a new interview shared on Wednesday, April 20, that she and her Cider House Rules costar Tobey Maguire did not get along on the set of the 1999 drama, based on John Irving’s bestselling novel of the same name.
“Tobey and I had a bit of a rough time,” Theron, 40, told V Magazine in its Hollywood Issue cover story. “I mean, we’re good now. It was a difficult movie. Every day is completely different for a completely different reason. Whether it’s the weather, or the writing isn’t there, or you don’t get along with your castmate, you have to be able to go to something else that’s just as powerful. Does it make it as enjoyable? Probably not. I mean, there were just a couple of days that Tobey and I had a rough time.”
Theron’s role as Candy Kendall opposite Maguire’s Homer Wells in the period film was one of her very first major acting gigs in Hollywood. The South Africa native — who was 22 years old at the time of filming — went on to win the Best Actress Academy Award five years later for her portrayal of a serial killer in 2003’s Monster. Like Theron, Maguire was also on the cusp of superstardom at the time, and landed the franchise lead in Spider-Man from 2002 to 2007.
Despite their friction on the set, Theron said she and Maguire eventually put their differences aside. “The rest of the movie, we actually had a really good time. I love Tobey,” she claimed. “I’m kind of glad we had that experience on that movie. It teaches you different things. It taught me that I could fall in love with somebody in my head while looking at someone else … We had some really intimate moments. Tobey and I didn’t feel that way about each other, so I had to figure something else out.”
Theron also discussed the rampant sexism she’s faced in Hollywood over the course of the last few decades. “It’s brutal when you think of the truth of what we face in society, what it means for a woman versus what it means for a man,” the Huntsman: Winter’s War actress reflected to V. “What we, especially women, consider to be our strengths and to be our weaknesses. That aging is a weakness that we think of it that way. Yet, it’s when we’re at our wisest. We’ve experienced everything and we should be considering ourselves the richest.”
“We live in a society where women are treated like wilted flowers,” she continued. “They used to be pretty, but now they’re just kind of wilting. The guy is like a fine bottle of wine. He just gets better and better with age. It became very real, the vanity of it all. That we are all animals of our circumstance. If you are raised to believe that your power is only good for as long as you’re beautiful, then that’s what you’re going to believe.”
The Hollywood Issue of V Magazine hits stands on May 5.
