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Charlize Theron.
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Charlize talks superheroes
Kate Whiting30/ 6/2008
SUMMER would not be the same without those obligatory blockbuster action films competing for box office ratings - yet it's rare to find an Oscar-winning actress and an Oscar-nominated actor sharing top billing on one such popcorn movie.
But then Hancock, starring Charlize Theron and Will Smith, is no ordinary action adventure - it's a superhero film with a difference.
"I think this will be the craziest ride an audience has ever had," says Charlize, with a wry smile.
"I have been in this business for 14 years and I walked out of the theatre after a screening and told my manager that this was original. I do not throw that word around. I have never seen anything like this. We took a genre that audiences are quite familiar with and did something unique!"
Hancock (Smith) is a completely flawed superhero - drunk and dishevelled, he no longer cares about anyone or anything and goes on drink-fuelled missions that usually do more harm than good.
Until, that is, he rescues PR guru Ray (Jason Bateman), who insists on transforming Hancock's public image and helping him clean up his act - against his own wife Mary's (Charlize) better judgment.
"Uncomfortable"
"We have never seen a superhero live a life that is so uncomfortable to watch," says blonde Charlize, who is bright and articulate - and on lively form today.
"He is not a nice guy. He has no social skills and you can't have a normal conversation with him," she continues.
"Here is this guy who has been doing this a long time. He is somewhat tired of the routine and so he drinks and likes to grab young girl's asses!
"All of this was a wow to me, because it makes a real human story. At the end of the day, we are all the same. We all hurt the same." As Hancock gets to know Ray and his wife, it seems there is a strong attraction between him and Mary - and we soon discover she is hiding a dark secret.
"She makes this conscious decision to live in suburbia and be this soccer mum to her stepson and be the perfect wife - she lives in this bubble," explains the 32-year-old.
"But when people do that it usually means they are hiding some characteristic inside themselves that scares them. That is Mary's case. She knows who she is and what she is capable of. I find it very complex when I get to play women like that."
Filming on Hancock was done in LA - with one of the locations just two minutes down the road from where Charlize lives in Hollywood.
"I've done that on two other films and it's never fun because your friends end up getting annoyed - you come home to about 20 messages of them bitching because they couldn't get home," she says.
"But the crowds love it. Here we were on Hollywood Boulevard with Will Smith joking around and high-fiving people. He was throwing trucks around on set, so if you were a tourist there that week, you really lucked out."
Stunts
Smith wasn't the only one to do stunts on set - Charlize reveals she got to do "some crazy stuff" in the film.
"We did everything. There were days when I remember turning to Will and saying `what?' That is what was so great about the film because none of us really knew what we were getting into.
"We did it all from wire work one day to a four-page monologue the next that would break your heart. Then the next day we did this slapstick. It was crazy and funny - each day was so different," she adds.
South African-born Charlize grew up an only child and went to boarding school in Johannesburg. At 16, she travelled to Italy and then New York on modelling contracts before training in the States as a ballet dancer - her first love.
She only turned to acting after a knee injury stopped her dancing - landing roles in films like The Devil's Advocate and Cider House Rules in the mid-90s.
It was as an uglified serial killer in 2003's Monster that she won massive critical acclaim - and an Oscar for Best Actress.
She's set to return to drama in her next two projects, The Burning Plain and The Road, before reprising her role in the follow-up to The Italian Job, the ironically titled The Brazilian Job.
Boyfriend
Charlize currently lives with long-term actor boyfriend Stuart Townsend, who she starred with in Trapped and Head In The Clouds. But she insists they won't get married until gay and lesbian marriages have the same status as marriage between heterosexuals.
"I have always been open about the limits we have in our society. It all boils down to love. How do we dictate what kind of love is valid?
"Does it matter if it is between a man and a man, or a man and a woman, or a black man and a white woman?"
Her friendship with Will Smith goes back to 2000, when they both starred in The Legend Of Bagger Vance - and hit it off straight away.
"I didn't get to work with Will much on that film, but we goofed around a lot on set. I knew I really liked this guy so I knew there was so much more room for us to explore as actors," she explains.
"He could so easily just lean back, but he shows up and works incredibly hard," she adds.
In a flurry of praise for her co-star, Charlize continues: "I think Will Smith is going to break the conception about independent film-making and the big blockbuster world with this movie. People are so quick to categorise that the better acting is in the independent world and the big blockbusters are all about action and are mainly fluff.
"Will is really going to change that misconception single-handedly."
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