Charlize Theron admits career had 'bitch period,' says she apologized to 'Gringo' crew for what she had to say (exclusive clip)
“I’ve played a couple of bitches in my life,” Charlize Theron told us Saturday during a Facebook Live interview promoting her action-comedy Gringo, where she was joined by co-star David Oyelowo (watch the full interview below). “You know, Picasso had [the] Blue Period. I definitely had a bitch period.”
The Oscar-winning actress didn’t elaborate on when exactly the so-called bitch period played out (we’re guessing 2011-12, in which she played not-so-friendly types back-to-back-to-back in Young Adult, Prometheus, and Snow White and the Huntsman). But Theron puts Elaine Markinson, the cunning Big Pharma exec set on royally screwing over Oyelowo’s middle-management stooge after dispatching him on a treacherous trek to Mexico, in said company.
(You can get a look at Elaine’s cutthroat boardroom tactics in the exclusive clip above).
Oyelowo agrees: “This is up there,” he said. “This is, like, fully up there.”
Said Theron: “She’s incredibly ignorant on top of her bitchiness. So I think that’s what makes her somewhat outrageous.”
As Oyelowo previously told Yahoo Entertainment, one of the aspects of Gringo he enjoyed most was seeing all the actors in its ensemble (also including Joel Edgerton, Sharlto Copley, Thandie Newton, and Amanda Seyfried) play against type. If this is the bitchiest we’ve ever seen Theron, it’s certainly the douchiest we’ve ever seen Edgerton, who plays a corporate shark alongside Theron.
Still, according to Theron, the characters aren’t completely out of this world. “I think the thing that ensues so much comedy out of this action-driven film is the fact that a lot of the characters we play are really based on a lot of reality. It was important for us to really look at them that way instead of making them caricatures and just absurd. So I think that was fun for me.”
Elaine is so brash and boorish at times, Theron, who’s also a producer on the film, which is directed by Nash Edgerton, found herself making amends with the witnesses. “For the first couple of days I felt so uncomfortable having to say some of the stuff that I had to say to people. And to watch the crew hear me say those things … I profusely apologized every five minutes.”
Asked who she had to apologize to the most to, Theron said, “Everybody. I mean, the entire room.”
Gringo opens March 9.
Watch our full Facebook Live interview:
Read more on Yahoo Entertainment: