"It’s like joining the circus – then I go home to my own life": Charlize Theron on balancing films and family

"It’s like joining the circus â€" then I go home to my own life": Charlize Theron on balancing films and family

For someone suffering from a severe lack of sleep, Charlize Theron is looking surprisingly happy and contented.

The reason, she explains, is little Jackson, the six-month-old baby son she adopted in March, who keeps her awake at nights.

“I used to love sleep,” she says, “but he has made me realise that I actually don’t need that much at all. It’s amazing.

"I sleep for maybe three hours, but there’s this excitement, energy and love in the house. When I look into his little face I feel I’ve had 40 coffees and 20 hours of sleep.”

The 36-year-old actress has the distinction of having two major films released this week in Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel Prometheus and the action adventure Snow White And ?The Huntsman.

Theron has been unattached since breaking up with her long-time boyfriend Stuart Townsend two years ago, but says she always wanted to start a family.

“I always knew I would adopt, even if I was in a relationsh ip,” she says. “So it wasn’t like a last resort for me or anything like that. The time just felt right.

“It’s not something you can take lightly because there’s a lot of emotional time and effort goes into adoption. It’s not as if you wake up one morning and by four in the afternoon you have a baby.

It doesn’t happen that way. I knew it would take some time ?to get this slice of heaven on toast which is my little boy.”

Charlize is an actress who is on the move a lot of the time and Jackson is already used to plane travel.

Prometheus pals: Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron and Logan Marshall-Green at the world premiere

“My mother took a photo of me on the plane with him while I was sleeping and holding a bottle,” she recalls.

“When I looked at the photo I said, ‘Wow! Look at the angle of the bottle. I did that in my sleep?’ I was very impressed with my skills.”

We are talking at Arundel Castle in Sussex where Charlize and the other cast members of the £125m special effects-filled Snow White And The Huntsman have gathered to talk about the movie, which was filmed entirely in England and Wales.

The tall, stunningly attractive blonde actress is relaxed and cheerful with a strong sense of humour.

In the movie, she is just the opposite, playing Queen Ravenna, an evil ruler desperate to retain her youthful looks, who sends a drunken huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) into the woods to kill Snow White (Kristen Stewart) and cut out her heart.

“I always do a lot of work before I show up on the set,” Charlize explains, “and I wanted a story that really sui ted the queen, but that also gave us some insight into how she became so evil.

“In fact, I think she’s a very sad character and she breaks my heart at the end because she’s so tragic.

“It sounds like it could be a girlie film but it’s not. More than anything, it’s an action-adventure piece set in an epic landscape.”

Charlize has been spending a lot of time in England lately because science-fiction thriller Prometheus was also shot here, at Pinewood Studios.

Set in the year 2093 â€" 30 years before the events of Alien â€" it centres around the crew of the spaceship Prometheus which heads off to a distant planet after archaeological discoveries on Earth suggest that the secret of human creation might be awaiting there.

Charlize plays the chilly and mysterious Meredith Vickers, the corporate suit who represents the shady corporation that has funded the mission. The cast have been forbidden from revealing much about the film.

Legbombing: Charlize Theron poses for photographers

 

“You feel Meredith might have a hidden agenda because she’s not really supportive of the mission,” Charlize says.

“We’re basically on the mission to find the origins of where we come from, but she doesn’t make it easy on the crew and she goes against everything that everybody else is there to do. She’s a suspicious character.”

Like Mavis, the woman she played in her last movie, Young Adult, the characters Theron portrays are all vastly different, bearing no relationship whatsoever to her real self. And that’s just the way she likes it.

“I have no desire to see Charlize up there on the screen,” she laughs. “When I do, that’s the day I quit. I love finding these people who have nothing to do with me.”

The South African-born beauty has worked hard to get where she is now and her early career was a series of a few highs and a lot of lows.

But since winning the Oscar and Golden Globe in 2003 for her chilling portrayal of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, she has been on an almost permanent high.

Charlize earned another Oscar nomination for playing an abused single mother in North Country and is now firmly on Hollywood’s A-list of sought-after actresses. She was originally spotted by a talent manager while throwing a tantrum in a bank.

These days, Charlize has her own production company, with projects ranging from films to reality TV and is the spokeswoman for Christian Dior’s J’Adore.

She is a supporter of Aids and sexual violence charities, and has got involved in women’s rights. But films remain her first love.

“I adore this gypsy life of making a movie. It’s like joining the circus â€" then I get to go home to my own life.”

Prometheus and Snow White And The Huntsman are released today.