Charlize Theron’s efficiency in “The Satan’s Advocate,” through which she performs a personality haunted and tortured by demonic spirits, completely stands out. There’s one scene, specifically, that made Patty Jenkins understand Theron can be good to play Aileen Wuornos. “It was this excessive closeup of Charlize with pink eyes, all puffy, and snot popping out of her nostril, which is so unvain,” Jenkins informed the Toronto Star. “And I simply appeared on the TV and stated, ‘Charlize might do it.'”
The bodily transformation that Theron underwent to play Wournos convincingly is now the stuff of Hollywood legend, however Jenkins acknowledged her potential properly earlier than that. Reportedly, Kate Winslet and Brittany Murphy had been additionally within the position, so Jenkins began feeling assured that she might go for her supreme alternative first. “I stated, okay, now it’s a must to get a no from Charlize earlier than I can select any individual else.” Seeing the candy, doomed chemistry between Theron and Christina Ricci within the completed movie, it is onerous to think about one other performer giving Wuornos that sort of pathos whereas additionally feeling a bit of bit harmful.
Jenkins wasn’t conscious of Theron’s personal childhood trauma on the time, however she noticed one thing that nobody else did. “There are individuals who know the darkness, and individuals who do not,” Jenkins stated. “There aren’t a variety of actresses in Hollywood, I believe, who’ve that in them. That understanding. That depth.” Theron reached a wholly new echelon within the performing world after “Monster,” coming off a efficiency that legendary critic Roger Ebert known as “one of many biggest performances within the historical past of the cinema.” One solely hopes that Jenkins finally returns to her roots as an indie filmmaker and finds one thing that speaks to her as deeply as Aileen’s story did.
