Charlize Theron says a certain male director repeatedly pressured her to be more "f*ckable"

For an actor as tenacious and versatile as Charlize Theron, malleability is just part of the job description. From Patty Jenkins’ Aileen Wuornos in Monster to George Millers’ Imperiator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, there’s nary a transformation Theron isn’t willing to take in the name of a strong creative vision. Unfortunately, however, The School For Good And Evil star recalls in a new interview that some of her early directorial notes onset were more focused on making her “fuckable” above all.

Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, Theron specifically notes costuming as one of her biggest pet peeves in the industry across a decades-long career. Unsurprisingly, Theron also says things were much worse when she was new to the professional acting world, and more easily played for an ingenue.

“Having absolutely no control over what you’re wearing is a big one that really fucking annoyed me for years. Having some guy make you have a fitting almost in front of them—stuff like that, it’s really belittling,” Theron explains. “When I started, there was no conversation around it. It was like, ‘This is what you’re wearing.’”

Theron then continues on, citing one specific movie where the barrage of sexualization was especially monotonous. “I remember one movie in particular, this male director who just kept bringing me in, fitting after fitting after fitting after … And it was just so obvious that it was to do with my sexuality and how fuckable they could make me in the movie,” she says. “When I started out, that was just kind of the norm.”

Early negative experiences, however, did anything but deter Theron from continuing forward in the industry. Instead, she’s made banishing over-sexualization and under-representation in film a central tenet of her career. Her 2020 Netflix film The Old Guard (which has a Theron-starring sequel on the way) was shot with a crew of 85% women.

Even in 2003, while filming Monster, she recalls pushing back against its financier’s desire to have a “hot lesbian film with Christina Ricci.” Theron says she didn’t want to tarnish first-time director Jenkins’ harrowing debut. (Spoiler alert: they didn’t, and Monster remains one of Theron’s most arresting, gritty performances.)

“There’s a natural fight in me to want to create environments [on set] that feel like the things that I wish I had 30 years ago when I started,” Theron says. “I don’t always get it right, but I am very aware of looking at the big picture and saying, ‘Is this really the best we can do?’”