For the past week, we’ve been making references to Charlize Theron’s British GQ interview, wherein Charlize lamented the sad state of affairs in which six-foot-tall blonde models are regularly turned away for great roles because casting directors would rather hire un-pretty actresses. British GQ asked her about Hollywood typecasting, and she reportedly told them:
“Jobs with real gravitas go to people that are physically right for them and that’s the end of the story. How many roles are out there for the gorgeous, f–king, gown-wearing eight-foot model? When meaty roles come through, I’ve been in the room and pretty people get turned away first.”
Even if we’re giving her the benefit of the doubt, it still doesn’t come across very well. At best, she’s just saying something about her personal journey in Hollywood, where she’s had to convince people that she can play roles beyond the “hot girlfriend.” At worst, Charlize was saying that she consistently loses roles to actresses who cannot hold a candle to her magnificent beauty. In any case, at the LA premiere of The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Charlize was asked to clarify her words and she did! Some highlights from her Extra interview:
On her daughter August: “She’s great, she’s growing like a weed. It’s, like, insane — it’s unbelievable how quickly they become little people. I’m trying to hang on to my little baby, but she’s just fighting right through that like, ‘I’m ready to go.’”
August adores her big brother: “[It’s] a love that is unbelievable to watch. I was an only child, and to watch that sibling relationship I feel like I’m watching something so sacred and beautiful. Like, he walks into a room and he doesn’t even look at her and she just lights up and I’m, like, in front of her going crazy trying to get a reaction… It’s so beautiful.”
Whether she’s a romantic: “I think that the older I’ve become, the more I’ve valued and realized there’s so many different kinds of love. When we’re young… young girls, we just think of the romantic kind. When you become a parent, the love you have for your children and you have a sisterhood around you, that love that you have from your girlfriends… there’s so many different kinds of love.”
Clarifying her GQ comments: “You know, I don’t want to blame anybody, there is no blame, there was maybe just a huge misunderstanding and I’ve never really spoken in that way… The idea that I would ever say anything that made it sound like I was ungrateful for the career that I have today. People always ask me, ‘Why [do] you play such deconstructed characters?’ and I’ve always said, ‘Well, how many roles are there where you can wear a gown and look like an 8-foot model?’… I have always been honest that when I was a model 20 years ago, it was hard to walk in a room, I had to prove myself and in a way that today I’m so lucky that I’m in place now where I don’t have to, and I’m grateful for that, too, because it gives you character and makes you who you are and you don’t want everything to come easy. Yeah, so that was rough, that was rough reading that.”
That’s one of the better “clarifications” I’ve ever read, and while she might have worked on that with her publicist, she was able to roll it out live on the red carpet, so bonus points for Charlize. I’m glad she didn’t throw GQ under the bus – probably because they likely have audio of Charlize saying those words – and she just sort of chalked it up a misunderstanding. I get that she had to “prove herself,” and prove that she could be a real dramatic actress and not just a pretty accessory to a primary male character. But don’t ever suggest that pretty people have a harder time in life, Charlize!
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
I am glad she has overcome this great adversity. Now that she has Charsplained her tuff times, maybe she can tell us why she took a seat on The Baked Ham Express.
She’s morphing into a Real Housewife. I saw this pic and thought it was Yolanda Foster…I mean Yolanda Hadid.
Yep, this makes more sense. And even if she does feel salty about losing certain parts to other actresses, it’s understandable, however this was a very elegant save. +1 Charlize.
She should have never clarified. It was obvious what she meant.
No it wasn’t because blogs chose to misrepresent what she said with attention grabbing headlines like “Charlize says she’s too gorgeous for Hollywood” and claiming she is putting other actresses down. When actually she never referred to herself as gorgeous. They were asking her about her unglamorous roles and she was simply saying the meaty parts are unglamorous basically. Although I would love to see her in a part that is glamorous and meaty.
True. For some reason, nobody could wrap their head around the idea that in Hollywood, beauty is a common commodity.
I think it was obvious too. I think she didn’t want it turning into something more than people tried to make it.
Why is it so HORRIBLE for a physically beautiful person to state the realites of looking that way?
Life is hard in a different way for a woman who is beautiful physically and powerful. This is a fact.
I wish she had stayed the distance with that statement like Wonderwoman, Lynda Carter.
Life is hard for women. It just is hard in a different way based on how physically attractive you are.
“Life is hard for women. It just is hard in a different way based on how physically attractive you are.”
Well said! There are cons to being beautiful and there are cons to being not so beautiful.
I wonder if this problem with beauty is more of a Hollywood problem (because of the power men have over women, etc.)
I’ve never heard a person in a non-Hollywood context make this complaint. Maybe a beautiful person in real life might think it, but I’ve never heard them word their complaint the way a movie star does (i.e what Jessica Biel said). I have, however, seen a few articles here and there in magazines where an older woman talks about beauty and the benefits it conferred, and coming to terms with that loss.
I think the topic of one’s own beauty is a weird topic to address in general. Kristen Scott Thomas has talked about not being looked at the way she was when she was younger and more beautiful (she still is), and how she’s now ignored in favour of younger women, and the way she words her comments make me cringe too.
There are a LOT more cons to being short, overweight and unattractive. How can we even pretend otherwise?
I don’t find her remotely beautiful :/
Am I crazy?
@Phaedra I think she’s attractive but not Angelina Jolie, Sophia Loren, Liz Taylor beautiful, which many people seem to think she is.
Yeah there is nothing unique about her looks really.
Am I the only one who has ever thought that Angelina and Charlize kind of look alike in the face? I always thought so. Especially when they were young and before they were hugely famous. Charlize sometimes reminds me of a blonde, more conventionally looking version of Angelina. Many years ago Charlize said she and Angelina joked about receiving each other’s fan mail from people that confused them. She also said she thinks Angelina is gorgeous.
@Tara, I used to confuse the two as well. Both have similar career paths as well, so doubly confusing.
I mean, she’s beautiful but I never found her stunning or gorgeous. People sees beauty differently.
Did she mess up her face or what? She is starting to look more and more like Maria Bello.
You’re not crazy. To each their own. But she is – in a very obvious way – beautiful.
That being said, I find Eva Mendes to be flat out unattractive. And I don’t think she’s an obvious beauty. But I know lots of ppl find her hot.
Yeah, I think her beauty is of the more obvious kind (that’s the kind of beauty society has trained us to find beautiful).. I can see why people wouldn’t find her interesting looking (maybe that’s what she considers not pretty?) either though.
I think she starts to look more interesting when she starts moving and talking; when she’s in a frozen pose, I can kind of see the boringness people are talking about.
I don’t find her as amazing as she seems to think herself. She’s pretty.
+1. So glad others agree.
She is pretty but she’s not some amazing goddess or breathtaking legendary beauty.
Camille she absolutely is a goddess. Just watch her Dior commercials and your jaw drops.
I think she is stunning. I’m more drawn to someone like Rachel Weisz or Marion Cotillard in beauty, but I can’t deny Charlize’s beauty.
I think she is stunning as well. Her face is completely gorgeous, IMO. But not every likes the same things, so its no big deal of people think otherwise.
No Phedra, you’re not crazy.
to me she’s flat out gorgeous, but it’s just taste. there are tons of actors who people call beautiful but i find them borderline ugly (like ben affleck)
I have never heard anyone call Ben beautiful but ok. 🙂
Someone called Ben a beauty? Odd. I would never use that adjective for him.
Not crazy at all. I always thought she had “common sense” beauty. Meaning she has everything people consider beauty, like blue eyes, blond hair, tall, thin. So to think of her as beautiful would be common sense. And yet…she just doesn’t have that je ne sais quois, does she? The male equivalent to that is Alexander Skaarsgard, LOL (although he comes across as having a warm, playful personality. Charlize, not so much).
I think a lot of ASkars appeal is his personality and charisma, I know that is one of the factors why I enjoy him so much.
I think her styling might also be along the lines of “common sense” beauty. She dresses in the way you’d expect a beautiful person who is also considered to be a bombshell to dress.
I think her change to an American accent might have flattened her personality a bit (not because the accent is American, but her particular accent sounds a little harsher for some reason than the accent of another American actress. I can’t pinpoint why because the words are said the same way, but something sounds slightly different or less charming).
Not crazy, but questionable taste. She looks like she stepped out of a Hitchcock movie. I shudder to think I live in a world where Charlize Theron is considered one of the unattractive people.
I was just going to say the same but felt weird about it, Phaedra. I look at her and think I should think she’s beautiful, but there’s something missing, or not interesting enough… Same with Halle Berry.
I can see some people thinking Charlize and Halle don’t have enough character to their looks. That they are almost too pretty in a conventional way. Sophia Loren had a more unique beauty. I think Angelina is gorgeous in a unique way and Charlize sometimes reminds me of her in the face, but with a more conventional look. Anyone who doesn’t find Charlize pretty would definitely be in the minority. I think she looks like Kim Novak.
there is a difference between not being blown away by someone but by all standard Charlize is conventionally beautiful.
just because something is missing doesnt mean she isnt actually beautiful.
i think lots of people have that with Taylor Swift, she is obviously beautfiul but doesnt have something special. but still beautiful.
I agree. I feel people like to dismiss a beautiful blonde’s beauty because she’s blonde. Charlize is far from ordinary or unattractive and looks good with any hair color. She is one of the few blondes in Hollywood today who does stand out because she’s a throwback.
Nope I agree. She has permanent bitch face. She’s not ugly by any means but I don’t think she stands out particularly in Hollywood, looks wise. She’s sort of generic and bland to me.
She does have RBF, but she can’t help that and It doesn’t make her not as beautiful to me. I think a lot of the really pretty girls have that RBF problem.
She’s pretty, but I don’t find her to be astonishingly beautiful or talented.
I think she looks like a movie star, but more because I don’t think she’d ever be caught in jeggings, a flannel shirt, and bad hair than because her face is more unique than others in Hollywood. She styles herself well and always looks well-groomed. In that respect, she really does her job as a movie star well (so does Nicole Kidman). And she has the ability to wear a see-through dress and make the whole idea of see-through dresses seem normal and non-Kardashian-like.
I think that was a decent clarification. I got what she was originally saying, she just worded it poorly, and didn’t acknowledge the counterpoint – the benefits and roles that DO come from simply being beautiful.
I think she is incredibly gorgeous (but I’m not loving the hair and makeup at the moment).
The last line of her quote was left off. She also said ‘People think you have it easier if you look a certain way and yes it does open doors. But are they the doors you want?’ Her comment was taken out of context.
I agree. And we all say things that in hindsight come off daft or word things poorly. None of us are immune to that.
Tempest in a teapot, but it was a good outlet for internet venom for a few days I guess.
The internet warriors do get riled up. It is annoying to hear beautiful people complain, but I don’t like when people go off of quotes that are taken out of context to burn them at stake. This was a great clarification. Glad it was posted.
Imagine if more celebs cleared out their word salads like this. We’d have nothing to gossip about! Damn you, Charlize! Stop making me grow fond of you.
“When meaty roles come through, I’ve been in the room and pretty people get turned away first.” There’s no way around it but that she’s the “pretty people” in that scenario. She can “clarify” away, but she still said that.
Anyway. Whatever she’s doing to her face, she needs to stop. Now.
+1
I just googled some old pics of her, she’s had a crazy amount of PS, I didn’t realize that. Makes her talk of being so beautiful pretty ridiculous. Even if her explanation for the quote is OK, I still think that’s what she said and what she thinks.
@Luciana
Wow, you’re right! I just googled too.
She has at least several nose jobs and lip fillers or implants.
From her earliest photos, she’s almost unrecognizable.
I don’t see all this plastic surgery. I saw the devil’s advocate recently. She looks the same but older.
There’s a photo of her as a teenager where she’s leaning against the tree and she has the same face so I don’t know where you’re getting crazy amounts of plastic surgery. There’s another photo of her with glasses and you can see the same face too. Her face was just fuller when she was younger.
I don’t see it either. She’s been in films for 20 years now, and doesn’t look any different to me, just older.
She hasn’t had crazy surgery. Almost all have tweaked some but she is no Megan Fox.
Yeah why does Megan Fox look so plastic? She’s young. Charlize you can see has lines on her face and around her eyes, so I don’t agree with the work done accusations. I think the opposite. She finally looks like she’s aging. Like I said, people confuse bad makeup with plastic surgery. Megan Fox looks extremely plastic and I can’t figure out why she did that.
She’s starting to have that pulled, unnaturally smooth look. Yikes.
People too often mistake bad makeup job for plastic surgery. You’ll see her at another event with better makeup and she’ll look totally flawless.
Not a bad explanation. Except, first she kinda throws the GQ writer under the bus? Almost? And I understand her point about not being taken seriously as an actress when she was still a model. That happens a lot. But I tend to believe that it still opened more doors than it closed. Whether those were the opportunities she wanted is another questions. They were opportunities to get her foot in the door whereas a less attractive woman might never have seen the inside of the room at all.
I don’t exactly love her, I have to say. Maybe I’m nitpicking. But everyone has to prove themselves somehow. She had to prove she was more than a pretty face, “unattractive” actresses have to prove their talent is so impressive that they should be hired despite not fitting the Hollywood mold.
It’s a pet peeve of mine when successful celebrities can’t find that line between talking about negative experiences and complaining. Yes, you all have problems too. But that interview is probably read by a single mom of 3 with 2 jobs. Don’t be tacky about it.
Yeah, I think anybody who goes to Hollywood has to prove themselves, especially given the cut-throat nature of the business. And if you want to have longevity, I don’t think there’s any way around having to prove yourself. If anything, I think most people would like the opportunity to prove themselves since the alternative is…not getting the chance to do anything at all.
When Charlize had to prove herself, I don’t necessarily think it was because she was a model. I think it was probably because she was only 20 and unknown to American audiences. Cindy Crawford was handed a big movie lead just for being a model, but of course she stunk beyond everybody’s wildest dreams, and we never saw her act again.
It was nice to read about her kids and be reminded of that brief moment in time when my son and daughter enjoyed each other. Now my ears bleed daily from the constant bickering and name calling and tattling. They’d probably seriously maim each other without constant supervision.
does she not realize the majority of actresses in hollywood are pretty and its actual more rare for them not to be at least above average looking? hollywood is filled with beautiful people. does she really think herself that much of a cut above the rest? she sounds like the guys that get rejected by a woman and say, “its because im nice” does she think julia roberts, angelina jolie, or aubrey hepburn’s careers are flukes where the actress triumphed over her stunning beauty to be taken seriously? she sounds like she doesnt understand her own talent and rather than being self aware, has decided to say “its because im pretty”.
That was my issue with her original comment. The people getting the roles she wants are also pretty/beautiful/gorgeous. If she loses a meaty role, I doubt it’s to Jessica Biel. I’m pretty sure that part is going to Kate Winslet.
Where these beauties might differ might be the level of charisma. I’ve seen the word beautiful used non-stop for Charlize, but I don’t know if I’ve seen the word charisma associated with her.
Are she and Ben Affleck really dating or is that a tabloid fantasy?
May this come true! I would love it. I’m a Ben apologist but I think he needs someone who wouldn’t tolerate too much from him.
I disagree with you. She kicked Sean Penn to the curb like it was nothing. I don’t think she needs to take on a man with a gambling problem and all kinds of issues when she has small children. On the red carpet they were trying to bait Charlize by asking her if love conquers all and she cleverly turned the conversation to being about the love of her children and female friends rather than romantic love. Seems to me she’s not interested in getting a man right now. She’s very independent.
I think she’s pretty, but I just don’t like her. She looks dead in the eyes to me. No personality.
Glad she clarified. I could tell they were out of context. We must all realize how the media works. They will take a quote completely out of context and attach it to a click-baiting headline to draw attention. People fall for it every time. Context is everything. People want to believe the worst especially when they want to bash the gorgeous ice queen.
Also does anyone think that that is a horrible hair color for Charlize? She’s so beautiful and that is an ugly shade of blonde that washes you out. She needs a golden blonde color.
I hate that shade on her too. So harsh!
I really like that she adopted 2 little black babies. Because she is feeling guilty/upset for living the time of the apartheid in South Africa and she is doing something meaningful to reverse that. I like seeing the humanity in people.
But yes, she is flat out gorgeous.
OK…I’ll sit in the corner as I might be the only person here who thinks she didn’t really clarify anything (like she just repeated what she had already said).
I like her and I think she’s a great actress…but it’s total delusional to think that it is harder for someone who looks like a model to get a job in Hollywood…no way. I don’t need to repeat what was already said but the great majority of highly paid/in great demand actresses look like a model…If she had a tough time being taken seriously as an actress maybe she should put some deep thought on why that might be. She needs to re-check her privilege.
Again, she never said that being beautiful is a hindrance in Hollywood, she said only that beauty alone will not guarantee a great acting role. In fact, it could work against you when directors and casting agents see eight million beautiful faces who can’t act for shit.
In your comment you refer to all the in-demand actresses who happen to be beautiful.
Yes.
Of course they are.
Because this is Hollywood.
But what sets those actresses apart from the Biels and Albas is TALENT. For instance, Julianne Moore is very attractive, she’s also outstanding as an actress. Amy Adams to me is pretty, but she’s not a bombshell, but she gets the great roles because of talent. Same with J Law.
I don’t get why this concept–that beauty in abundance loses it’s value–is so hard for people to understand. It’s like seeing a gazelle in a zoo makes it seem unique and special but seeing eight million gazelles in the Sahara makes them seem common.
Again, all Charlize was trying to say is that beauty will not guarantee you a complex, meaty role in Hollywood. Judging by the talented actresses who get the best roles and work with the best directors, Charlize is 100% right.
What you’re missing is she was discussing what meaty roles require you to look like because people are always asking her why she plays down her beauty or masks her beauty for a role. She was saying the reason she has taken on those unglamorous parts is because those are the meaty ones. There aren’t many meaty parts that are glamorous is what she means basically.
“But don’t ever suggest that pretty people have a harder time in life, Charlize!”
This made me think of the “Bubble” episode of 30 Rock. 🙂
Just reading a reference to that episode made me giggle–that’s how much I LOVE that episode.
Emily Blunt said she’s deeply in love with Charlize. Lol. I love this friendship.
The Rock just posted “want to officially welcome good bud and all around badass Charlize Theron to Fast & Furious 8. When MTV asked her how she felt about coming in and playing the villain, her response is classic and the reason why I love that woman… She said, “I’m coming to mess that **** up!’
Charlize really is a badass. Some people aren’t getting that because society is quick to label strong and blunt beautiful women the b word. I hate that. Let’s support our badass women and that includes Charlize, Emily, and Angelina. Who else?
I’m game. I like badass women best. I love her for it. I love Angelina for it. I love a woman who is like that.
Susan Sarandon is like that.
All I have to add to today’s post is that I love the “bug” details on her dress. Made me smile.
I usually like her style, but I hated that dress. It was like a grosser version of the Cate Blanchett Oscar dress in 1999. Does her character in Snow White and the Huntsman have anything to do with insects? I was wondering if she was doing something in character.
Why oh why do the ‘stahhzz’ dump a bunch of words out of their mouths and then 22.3 hours later they are dumping apologize words from their mouths. Don’t say it in the first place, or don’t apologize.
Where did she apologize? She was unfairly taken out of context and misquoted. She was clarifying her comments.
Yep. Big misunderstanding.
Now that everyone sees you’re a colossal azhole.
Sure she was an ashole for describing what meaty roles look like and people taking that extremely out of context in order to start a faux controversy for blog clicks. Don’t you get how the entertainment media works?