Ahead of her upcoming honor at the Academy Museum Gala this fall, Charlize Theron stopped by the museum on Saturday night for a discussion about one of her biggest — and most famously fraught — projects, in Mad Max: Fury Road.
The 2015 action film, set in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland, stars Theron as warrior Imperator Furiosa, who leads the daring escape of female prisoners from a tyrannical ruler. She co-stars alongside Tom Hardy (playing former captive Max Rockatansky), and the two majorly butted heads throughout the production. The film still went on to major critical and commercial success, landing 10 Oscar nominations and six wins.
At the event, Theron was interviewed on stage by Shyla Corona and Kamila Gomez, two members of the Academy Museum Teen Council, ahead of a Fury Road screening. They touched on the star’s character preparation process and her 2004 Oscar win for Monster, as Theron began to cry, reflecting on her journey from a small town in South Africa to the Oscar stage. “It doesn’t make sense, you know,” Theron said as she wiped away tears, teasing the teen moderators, “You guys suck. I have my daughters here tonight; they can’t see me cry.” She added of her Academy Awards moment, “It’s a true testament that dreams come true, you know. And if it can happen to me, trust me, it can happen to anybody.”
