The 'Mad Max: Fury Road' leading lady reveals she was ordered to take six weeks more car training that her male co-stars for the 2003 heist action movie.
- Jul 24, 2020
AceShowbiz - Charlize Theron was insulted while preparing for 2003 heist movie "The Italian Job" when producers insisted she take six weeks more car training than her male co-stars.
Theron, Edward Norton, Jason Statham, and Mark Wahlberg had to do their own driving in the fast-paced film and producers wanted to make sure they were ready for the stunt work behind the wheel.
During a Comic-Con@Home panel, the Oscar winner said, "The Italian Job was a great experience, in the sense that I realised there was still so much misconception around women in the genre, even though in that film the action is really based on cars. We had to physically do a lot of that stuff. The only good thing that came out of that experience was that there was a real pressure to pull off those stunts with the actors."
"But there was a very unfair process that went with that - I was the only woman with a bunch of guys and I remember vividly getting the schedule in our pre-production (period) and they had scheduled me for six weeks more car training than any of the guys. It was just so insulting, but it was also the thing that put a real fire under my a**.
"I was like, 'Alright, you guys wants to play this game? Let's go.' And I made it a point to out drive all of those guys."
She was so proud of her driving in the film, especially after Wahlberg threw up during a scene, and admits the perception of female action stars has changed in the last 15 years. "The good news now is that we've kind of changed the genre for women," she said. "I think there's great evidence where we now know you can't hide behind ignorance anymore. Audiences love these films."
