{"id":31377,"date":"2025-07-02T01:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T01:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/31377\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T01:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T01:58:10","slug":"charlize-theron-on-old-guard-2-the-odyssey-and-furiosa-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/31377\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlize Theron on Old Guard 2 The Odyssey and Furiosa Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCharlize Theron<\/a> never planned to make a sequel to 2020\u2019s The Old Guard<\/a>, but when it became one of Netflix\u2019s most viewed films of all time, the pieces already happened to be in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe coda at the end of Gina Prince-Bythewood\u2019s soulful action drama teased that Qu\u1ef3nh (Veronica Ng\u00f4), the long lost immortal lover of Theron\u2019s Andromache (Andy) of Scythia, had finally been freed from her underwater tomb where she drowned and re-drowned millions upon millions of times. That extra piece of story wasn\u2019t necessarily intended to be sequel bait; it just made sense to illustrate that the story is never over for a group of immortal warriors.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith director Victoria Mahoney now at the helm, The Old Guard 2<\/a> chronicles Andy and the Old Guard\u2019s renewed purpose to do good in the world, all while Andy further adjusts to being a mere mortal per the last movie\u2019s story point. But Qu\u1ef3nh\u2019s unexpected return to civilization and the simultaneous emergence of Uma Thurman\u2019s mysterious figure known as Discord test Andy and her team in unprecedented ways. And similar to the original film, the second chapter also ends on another tantalizing cliffhanger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen asked if she\u2019s confident about the likelihood of a third Old Guard film, Theron refuses to get ahead of herself, something she\u2019s wised up to over the years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNever confident, no. One thing I\u2019ve learned in this business is that there are no guarantees, and it\u2019s really gracious of [Netflix] to not have pushed us into another direction,\u201d Theron tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of The Old Guard 2\u2019s July 2 release. \u201cThis was always where we wanted to land the film, and it\u2019s also very reminiscent of the first one. So we treated this one exactly the same, but I\u2019m being completely honest when I say that we have absolutely no idea what that [third film] would even look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLater this month, Theron will join the set of Christopher Nolan<\/a>\u2019s The Odyssey<\/a>. She\u2019s portraying the mighty sorceress, Circe, at a point when Nolan and co. have already been filming for five months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI feel like I\u2019m going to be the new kid on the block. I know it\u2019s epic from reading the script, but for myself, I\u2019m only there for two weeks, I think,\u201d Theron shares.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring an interview with this THR writer in 2020, Theron candidly expressed how \u201cheartbreaking\u201d<\/a> it was to be recast ahead of George Miller\u2019s Mad Max: Fury Road<\/a> prequel, Furiosa. It\u2019s rare for an actor and a character to catch lightning in a bottle like Theron and her vengeful mechanic did, and so one would think that today\u2019s technology \u2014\u00a0or simple suspension of disbelief \u00e0 la Spike Lee\u2019s flashback narrative in Da 5 Bloods \u2014\u00a0would be pursued to keep that iconic pairing together. However, Anya Taylor-Joy instead took over the 20-something version of the character.<\/p>\n

\n\tTheron has deep admiration for Taylor-Joy and Miller\u2019s 2024 film, but she reiterates that the recasting is still a point of contention given how long she lived in Furiosa\u2019s shoes and the hardships she endured along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s nothing around [the recasting] that, to me, felt malicious. It was something that just dragged out for too long, and I totally understand it. It still doesn\u2019t make it feel any better,\u201d Theron says. \u201cI probably lived in [Furiosa\u2019s] body the longest out of any of my characters, and it was challenging. It was really challenging. But I think [Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga<\/a>] is absolutely beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFury Road\u2019s chaotic production has been well documented at this point, but in an age where behind-the-scenes stories are being turned into narrative features or series more and more frequently, it seems inevitable that Fury Road will eventually get the same treatment that David Fincher applied to Citizen Kane through Mank. (Other recent making-of narratives include The Disaster Artist, The Offer and Peter Farrelly\u2019s upcoming movie about Rocky.)<\/p>\n

\n\tTheron has never contemplated the possibility of a Fury Road making-of movie, but she does agree with the suggestion that a former co-star of hers would be an excellent choice to play her. \u201cYeah, [Mackenzie Davis] is incredible. She\u2019s got the arms,\u201d Theron says.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, during a recent conversation with THR, Theron also discusses her friendship with Keanu Reeves<\/a> and their ongoing attempts to reunite on screen. Then she previews her next Netflix actioner, Apex.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tOn behalf of everyone, we love when you make action movies, but you always seem to pay a physical toll for our entertainment. Did that trend continue on this one?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI got a black eye on this one, but I didn\u2019t break anything, so it\u2019s getting better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCompared to your past movies, I\u2019m glad to hear that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s mostly bruising. It\u2019s a kind of bruising that is hard to describe. When you do these fight sequences where you don\u2019t want to cut every two seconds, there\u2019s no way around it. So to play things continuously, your body takes a bit of a bruising, and there\u2019s only so many pads that you can put underneath your costume.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCharlize Theron as Andy in The Old Guard 2.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEli Joshua Ade\/Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tAre you glad that the stunt community that helps create Andy, Lorraine (<\/strong>Atomic Blonde<\/strong>) and Furiosa can finally receive Oscar recognition?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tOver the moon. It\u2019s such a joyous moment, but it\u2019s also frustrating that it took this long. They are incredible performers, and without those performances, we couldn\u2019t do what we need to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAndy is still mortal like she was at the end of the first Old Guard, and there are times where she has to use KiKi Layne\u2019s character, Nile, as a shield. But overall, does she still fight as if she\u2019s immortal? Or has she had to change her fighting style?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, I don\u2019t think she\u2019s reckless. She\u2019s eager, but she\u2019s not reckless. She really values working as a team and she really values her team. She also finds something in Nile that makes her want to be close to her, even though she\u2019s being a shield for her. She knows that she\u2019s going to be okay, but she wants to keep her close to her. So I don\u2019t think she\u2019s got a death wish. That\u2019s not the Andy that we meet. We meet an Andy who is at peace with her reality and her circumstance, but she\u2019s also excited to want to continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHaving Uma Thurman square off against you is inspired casting. Had the two of you crossed paths over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNo, we kind of knew each other from afar, but I\u2019ve always been a massive fan. I can\u2019t tell you how many times we\u2019ve developed something and I would throw her name out there. I\u2019ve constantly tried to pull something together with us, and I\u2019ve also had so many people around me whose opinions I really value, say, \u201cYou guys have to make a movie. People will absolutely love to see the two of you do action.\u201d Her action is so strong, and she\u2019s really raised the bar. So I felt like I had to really bring it. She was going to bring it, so I had to bring it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve been laughing to myself over what you said to her during your Hot Ones Versus <\/strong>episode<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cJust eat a fucking wing, bitch!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) That\u2019s amazing. I can\u2019t even remember saying that because I was in such panic. So thanks for reminding me. I\u2019ll make a mental note of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHave you spent much time on helicopters? I suppose what I\u2019m really asking is why you\u2019d put yourself through the harrowing stunt of hanging off one.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNo, I haven\u2019t spent a lot of time on helicopters; I\u2019m not crazy about them either. It just came out of the creative process and wanting to make that third-act set piece be as big as we all wanted it to be. Given that Uma was in it, we wanted it to really feel like an incredible set piece. So when we started adding these helicopters, we then had to figure out how they fit into the action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFred North, who\u2019s a legend in the business and does all the helicopter action work in every movie, then came on board. And I asked him: \u201cHow can we enhance this story without it feeling like action for the sake of action? How can we do it in a way that feels practical and not on stage with a blue screen or a green screen? How can we do it practically and safely so that it feels like you haven\u2019t seen this before in a movie?\u201d And he said to us, \u201cI don\u2019t know why, but I\u2019ve never done this with an actor. [Hanging an actor off the side of a helicopter] is actually incredibly safe if we do it the right way. It will look great, and you can do it all practically with a real helicopter.\u201d So he was really the one that threw this idea at us, and that\u2019s where it originated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCharlize Theron as Andy and Uma Thurman as Discord in The Old Guard 2.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEli Joshua Ade\/Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s so easy to be impressed by what you pull off on screen, but you often talk about how unimpressed your kids are. Have they given you your props yet?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThey\u2019re kids. They\u2019re doing exactly what they\u2019re supposed to do. I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s kids really feel that way about their parents, no matter what they do. And they\u2019re teenagers now. So, even if they were [impressed], they would never show it. But I want to believe that we\u2019ll actually sit down one day when they\u2019re old enough to have a glass of wine, and they\u2019ll say, \u201cYou know what, Mom? It was pretty badass when you were 50 and you were hanging off that helicopter. We never gave you your props.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou wrapped principal photography on <\/strong>The Old Guard 2<\/strong> a few years ago, but post-production lasted much longer than anyone expected. Did any silver linings emerge from the extra time?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, you just try to utilize the time. It wasn\u2019t necessarily [extra] time that we wanted. It was unfortunate, and it was just what was going on in the world. COVID was still really taking a toll on our business, and we had to shut down a couple of times. But you take advantage of that, and the creativity never stops. Even when you cut the camera, you\u2019re still thinking about it that night, and it\u2019s the same in the editorial process. So I never looked at that time as wasted. There\u2019s nothing you can do about it, you can\u2019t control it, but we utilized it to our best. We threw a lot of spaghetti against the wall, so we really, really know that this is the best movie being put forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film ends on a brutal cliffhanger, and I desperately want to believe that Netflix wouldn\u2019t let you do that unless they already expressed interest in a third film. How confident are you at this moment in time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tOh, never confident, no. One thing I\u2019ve learned in this business is that there are no guarantees, and it\u2019s really gracious of [Netflix] to not have pushed us into another direction. This was always where we wanted to land the film, and it\u2019s also very reminiscent of the first one. We never ended the first one thinking we were going to do a second, but that was just how it happened to be. So we treated this one exactly the same, but I\u2019m being completely honest when I say that we have absolutely no idea what that [third film] would even look like.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat else are you proud of on a producorial level?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tFirst and foremost, nobody got hurt. That\u2019s the thing that you\u2019re always challenged by and worried about, especially when big set pieces come up. It\u2019s making sure that nothing falls through the cracks. We did that big end [helicopter] set piece towards the end of the shoot, and it was already a long shoot. Everybody was really tired, and that\u2019s when you really have to have an extra cup of coffee because that\u2019s usually when mistakes happen. So I\u2019m just really happy that nobody got hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSecondly, I\u2019m really proud of the film that we\u2019re putting out. It hasn\u2019t necessarily been an easy nut to crack. It\u2019s a big world with giant mythology, and the characters play a central part in telling the story of the Old Guard. So it makes the writing and the development really challenging because you want everybody to be able to have time. This is why television is so great. How do you do that in two hours and really give everybody the moment that they need in a story? It\u2019s really complicated without making it convoluted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo I look at the movie now after many years of it being in post, and I\u2019m very, very proud of the film that we\u2019re putting forward. We really did what we initially set out to accomplish, and we never backed off that. No matter how hard it got, we stayed on that same road.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t(L-R) Henry Golding as Tuah, Luca Marinelli as Nicky, Marwan Kenzari as Joe, Charlize Theron as Andy and KiKi Layne as Nile in The Old Guard 2. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEli Joshua Ade\/Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring summer 2020 press for the first <\/strong>Old<\/strong> <\/strong>Guard<\/strong>, I remember you getting a lot of headlines for saying that you\u2019d never had a meeting with Marvel to that point. Did those headlines actually wake them up? The timing between your quote and <\/strong>Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness<\/strong>\u2019 photography<\/strong> <\/strong>was close enough that it gave off that impression.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tOh, I have no idea. I spent one day with them on that set. I spent most of that time really trying to wrap my head around what they wanted to do and where this was going. This is their process. It works for them. I was happy to come on board because it felt like there was a lot of room to explore, but I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s what it was. I should have asked them.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn other news, congratulations on being employed by Christopher Nolan.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThanks!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve been on plenty of huge movies, but does this one take the cake?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWell, I haven\u2019t been there yet. Like you guys, I\u2019m just hearing and seeing everything from afar. I\u2019m leaving in three weeks or something like that, and I feel like I\u2019m going to be the new kid on the block. I know it\u2019s epic from reading the script, but for myself, I\u2019m only there for two weeks, I think. Chris is the kind of filmmaker who knows exactly what\u2019s in his head, and he knows the movie that he\u2019s making, so I am going to go with that. But doing Fury Road and shooting it for a hundred days, that was as epic as I\u2019ve ever gone. [Note: Theron has since confirmed that she\u2019s playing the sorceress Circe.]<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a somewhat recent trend of movies or shows about the making of famous movies. David Fincher made <\/strong>Mank<\/strong> about the writing of <\/strong>Citizen<\/strong> <\/strong>Kane<\/strong>. <\/strong>The Disaster Artist<\/strong> chronicled <\/strong>The Room<\/strong>\u2019s origin. <\/strong>The Offer<\/strong> explored the behind-the-scenes of <\/strong>The Godfather<\/strong>, and there\u2019s a movie being made soon about <\/strong>Rocky<\/strong>\u2019s production. Do you think it\u2019s only a matter of time before somebody makes a narrative feature about the making of <\/strong>Mad Max: Fury Road<\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI can honestly tell you I\u2019ve never thought about that. I do not know what the realities are or how plausible [that would be]. I can\u2019t even think about it that way. The great thing is people can be so creative and actually pull something great out of that, but it\u2019s just not something that I\u2019ve ever spent any time thinking about.<\/p>\n

\n\tI already know who should play you in the behind-the-scenes movie, and it\u2019s obvious to anyone who\u2019s seen a 2018 gem called <\/strong>Tully<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) Yeah, [Mackenzie Davis] is incredible. She\u2019s got the arms.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I spoke to you five years ago, you were incredibly candid about Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and how <\/strong>\u201cheartbreaking\u201d<\/strong><\/a> that recasting decision was. Did you let yourself watch it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI watched it, and I think it\u2019s a beautiful film. I am a massive fan of Anya [Taylor-Joy]. She\u2019s an incredible actor. There\u2019s nothing around [the recasting] that, to me, felt malicious. It was something that just dragged out for too long, and I totally understand it. It still doesn\u2019t make it feel any better. I probably lived in [Furiosa\u2019s] body the longest out of any of my characters, and it was challenging. It was really challenging. But I am so supportive of what ended up happening, and I think the movie is absolutely beautiful.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou were bowled over when I previously mentioned this to you, but I spoke to <\/strong>John Wick<\/strong> directors, Chad Stahelski and Dave Leitch, for their film\u2019s tenth anniversary last year. And I informed them both that your terminally ill <\/strong>Sweet November<\/strong> character mailed a dog to Keanu 13 years before John Wick\u2019s terminally ill wife mailed him a dog. Apparently, Chad learned about it shortly after the first movie came out, but Dave didn\u2019t know.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) You are obviously a lover of film because not a lot of people would know that.<\/p>\n

\n\tMore importantly, it\u2019s been too long since you and Keanu have worked together. Who can I blame for this drought?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tHonestly, there\u2019s no one to blame. We are really trying, and we have been for all these years. Obviously, we are both very busy, but we have been in development on a couple of things. We\u2019re both very similar in the sense that we love each other. We\u2019re family, and we want to find the thing that is really worthy of the two of us being in it. In many ways, it\u2019s like doing a sequel to [The Old Guard]. We don\u2019t want to just do it for the sake of doing so, but we think about it a lot.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou mentioned during your Hot Ones episode that Keanu is <\/strong>most likely to not show up<\/strong><\/a> for a dinner party of yours. Is that a thing with him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tOh my gosh, did I? I can\u2019t remember why I said that. He definitely goes by his own clock, but not in a disrespectful way. He always shows up. He\u2019s professional. He\u2019s a great friend. He\u2019s one of the most loyal friends I\u2019ve ever had. He\u2019s also great in the sense that you can pick up with him exactly where you left off, and I don\u2019t need to talk to him every single day. But he is a bit of an enigma, and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if he didn\u2019t show up.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first time you worked together was on <\/strong>The Devil\u2019s Advocate<\/strong> (1997). Was the darkness of that story a lot to put yourself through so early in your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNow, when I think back, I\u2019m like, \u201cYeah.\u201d Maybe it\u2019s just me, but when you\u2019re that age, you\u2019re just so naive, almost. You\u2019re so eager that you almost don\u2019t have time to think about the fact that this could really fall on its face. You\u2019re working with brilliant actors, one who was legendary at that time. You have never done anything to stand on, and you\u2019re all of a sudden doing a scene opposite Al Pacino at 3:00 AM. It could all go so wrong, but when you\u2019re that age and you\u2019re that eager, I was just completely optimistic. It doesn\u2019t mean that you don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re going to fail, but you\u2019re more like, \u201cI\u2019m going to get it right. Give me one more shot. I\u2019m going to get this right.\u201d So, in retrospect, there\u2019s this wonderful fearlessness that we have when we\u2019re young. It\u2019s called stupidity. (Laughs.) We lose a little bit of that as we get older, but that fearlessness is what I think got me to where I am, hopefully.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou were an EP on Mindhunter, and there was recent talk that it might be <\/strong>revived<\/strong><\/a> in the form of three feature films. Should we temper our expectations at this current juncture?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI think you know just as well as I do that it\u2019s really in the world of David. It\u2019s up to him, and if he wraps his head around it, then it will happen. I know that he loves this world just as much as I do, but he only does things when he really feels like there\u2019s potential in it. He\u2019s a realist, and if he wants to do it, he\u2019ll do it.<\/p>\n

\n\tLastly, you just produced and starred in another Netflix actioner called <\/strong>Apex<\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, we just wrapped Apex. It was really a challenge, and it was a different challenge. When I read the script, I was like, \u201cOh, this could be really refreshing. There\u2019s no fight scenes, so I won\u2019t have to learn a style of fighting. It\u2019s really just action, like climbing a mountain and running.\u201d And boy was I wrong. I messed with the Gods. It was very practical, very real, and I truly did things on this movie that I never ever thought I would do. So it\u2019s been good. I keep pushing myself.<\/p>\n

\n\t***
The Old Guard 2 premieres July 2 on Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlize Theron never planned to make a sequel to 2020\u2019s The Old Guard, but when it became one…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[18981,26299,171,26533,26534,26535,53,3279,26536,18982,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-31377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-charlize-theron","9":"tag-christopher-nolan","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-furiosa-a-mad-max-saga","12":"tag-keanu-reeves","13":"tag-mad-max-fury-road","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-the-odyssey","16":"tag-the-old-guard","17":"tag-the-old-guard-2","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}