Charlize Theron discussed her previous experience with a male director in a recent Harper’s Bazaar interview.Rich Fury/Getty Images
Charlize Theron said a male director once made her attend multiple costume fittings, adding it was “so obvious that it was to do with my sexuality and how fuckable they could make me.”
Theron, 47, shared her experience in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar’s Leah Chernikoff published Thursday. The “Mad Max” actress told the outlet that “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,” she continued. “When I started, there was no conversation around it. It was like, ‘This is what you’re wearing.”
Charlize Theron said there was “no conversation” around choosing costumes during the early days of her career.Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images
Theron then recalled one instance when a male director made her do several costume fittings.
“And 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,” Theron said. “And when I started out, that was just kind of the norm.”
Theron did not specify which movie or director the incident involved.
In the interview, Theron said having more autonomy over costumes and makeup was part of the reason she created her production company, Denver & Delilah.
“There’s a natural fight in me to want to create environments that feel like the things that I wish I had 30 years ago when I started,” she told the outlet.
Theron previously spoke about feeling uncomfortable on film sets.
Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron in “Mad Max: Fury Road.”Warner Bros.
In February 2022, it was reported that Theron had a difficult time on set with Tom Hardy while filming “Mad Max: Fury Road.” According to “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road,” Theron was shadowed by a female producer on set because she didn’t feel safe after a confrontation with Hardy.
“It got to a place where it was kind of out of hand, and there was a sense that maybe sending a woman producer down could maybe equalize some of it, because I didn’t feel safe,” she said.