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Jan.2, 2005 - Jan.9, 2005 |
When beauty becomes a beast
Former model and dancer Charlize Theron transforms herself into a serial killer in Monster
By Angela Baldassarre
Originally Published: 2004-01-25
Talk about beauty becoming the beast. For her role as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins' directorial debut Monster, South African actress Charlize Theron gained 30 pounds, wore false teeth and completely altered her body posturing. The result has made this former model almost unrecognizable, and has garnered her a Golden Globe nomination with an Oscar one almost certainly to follow.
A bland ingenue in The Italian Job and Mighty Joe Young, the 28-year-old actress is familiar with real-life tragedies. When she was 15, her father attacked her mother who in turn shot him dead in self-defense. When the script for Monster fell on her lap, she not only jumped at the chance to play a serious role, she also decided to produce the movie through her production company Denver & Delilah Films (named after her two cocker spaniels).
Monster centres on the true-life story of Wuornos, a Florida prostitute since the age of 13 who was arrested in 1990 after killing seven of her customers. In her defense, Wuornos explained that the killings were carried out in self-defense. The fact that Wuornos was a renowned lesbian who was having an affair with a woman identified in the film as Selby (played by Christina Ricci) did not help endear her to the Floridian courts. She sat on Death Row for 12 years and was executed in October of 2002.
Charlize Theron was in Toronto recently to talk about Monster.
What do you think of people who criticize the film for making a serial killer sympathetic?
"I would disagree with that. I don't think that it's an overly sympathetic story, first of all. When I read the script initially - and I really try to pay attention to my reaction when I first read a script - I remember being on the second to last page and still not knowing how I felt about this woman. That's why it was really important for me to meet with Patty, to make sure that she was going to be that filmmaker who was going to stay true to that, because I don't think you can make this story and forget about the facts. This was a woman who didn't start off evil or bad, but who definitely got to a place in her life where she crossed the line and did really terrible things. And that truth was really important for both of us, and right from the beginning we made a pact to always stay very true to that. So I think that in her greater truth when you watch this film you come to a place of empathy, and of understanding. But I don't think it's a sympathetic story."
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