Maybe it’s not so bad being beautiful after all! Charlize Theron backtracked on her comments that it’s hard for ‘gorgeous’ ladies like herself to land gritty, Oscar-worthy roles and says that she was misquoted by British GQ for its May issue.
“Jobs with real gravitas go to people that are physically right for them and that’s the end of the story,” Theron, 40, told the mag. “How many roles are out there for the gorgeous, f–king, gown-wearing eight-foot model? When meaty roles come through, I’ve been in the room, and pretty people get turned away first.”
The South African stunner’s complaints immediately sparked debate online, where people poked fun at Theron for grumbling about her uncommonly good looks, but the mom of two insists people misunderstood the point.
“It was such an incredible misquote. I’m somewhat shocked by how I got so misquoted,” the actress told Access Hollywood at the premiere of her new film, The Huntsman: Winter’s War, where she does in fact play the gorgeous, gown-wearing Queen Ravenna. “What I was really trying to say was people always ask me why I play so many characters that are so deconstructed, and my point with that was that how many characters really are there out there for a woman wearing a gown? You have to kind of play real people.”
“Context is everything,” the former model continued. “And if somebody doesn’t really get that or it doesn’t translate, people can really kind of read stuff so wrongly.”
The Dior spokeswoman had to drastically alter her appearance for several of her toughest roles. She recently sacrificed her beautiful locks and shaved them down to a buzz cut to play Imperator Furiosa in 2015’s Max Max: Fury Road. The beauty famously won an Oscar for her role as Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s Monster, but she had to put on 30 pounds and wear a prosthetic nose to portray the real-life serial killer.
Speaking to ExtraTV, Theron added, “I have always been honest that when I was a model 20 years ago it was hard to walk into a [casting] room, and I had to prove myself. Today I’m so lucky that I’m in a place that I don’t have to. But I’m grateful for that, too, because it gives you character and it makes you who you are, and you don’t want everything to kind of come easy.”
