Charlize Theron talks North Country

The Second coolest guy on the planet (next to me of course), Wilson dropped us a line to share an interview he did with Charlize Theron on the upcoming film North Country. Here is an excerpt.

In talking to Niki Caro, she mentioned that when the cameras stopped rolling, it was you who was harassing the crew. What was that about?

Charlize Theron: She’s one to talk. The first night I got together with the real women and they started us some of their stories of what had happened to them.

It’s almost disturbing they would tell these horrible stories in this very humorous way and I had to really think about it and then I realized I think it was a way for them to protect themselves. If they could laugh about it, it didn’t affect them as much and I thought that was incredibly powerful; and without even thinking about it, when we started working on this material, that’s what happened to us; to every single women on this; and sometimes we are going to have to look at each other and go, “This is so wrong� because you think you are dealing with a serious topic and you should be serious about it all the time but the only healthy way to get through was to laugh about some of these horrible things and there were days when we would be in that mine and some of that dialogue… you are constantly hearing these horrible things.

There was a part of me that became like those women where I had to laugh about it in order for it not to affect me as much and so, yeah, our asses were grabbed during the day when the camera rolled and when it didn’t, I grabbed asses back. It made me feel a lot better and the boys were accommodating. (Laughs)

Niki said that in New Zealand there’s a very advanced society and that sexual harassment doesn’t really exists, so did you think it exists in South Africa?

I left South Africa when I was 15 so I was still considered a kid. Niki and I talked about this extensively and we both feel that we are very fortunate in our lives to not deal with these circumstances in many ways.

Part of the issue is that we have come a long way because I feel very fortunate; but it’s dangerous because I sit back and, before this film came to me, think that things are so great for women. I’ve got a great life. I’ve never felt that I have been treated unequal because of my sex and then you read this kind of story and you become fascinated by it and really wanted to know what was going on out there and you start hearing about these cases today in big cities like Chicago or Dallas and you realize that you cant just sit back and think that things are great just because your life is fortunate.

These things are still happening out there and the biggest thing that really hit me that it was a landmark case that changed the law and we should and try to change the law but that doesn’t mean we change how people think overnight and that takes a long and that’s why we can’t stop this fight right now. We still have a long way to go.

To read the rest of this fantastic interview, click here