Action movie badassery isn't just a boy's game anymore, and this summer Charlize Theron is tearing up the silver screen as new super spy Lorraine Broughton in Atomic Blonde Theron trained at the same level as iconic action hero Jean Claude Van Damme for the film, according to director David Lietch. But, as Theron explains, the physicality of the performance wasn't something she was entirely unfamiliar with.
"I think that there's a little nostalgia for me in wanting to do storytelling in the physical sense, which is what my first career was: I was a ballerina for most of my life. That's how I was taught to tell a story. And I'm still somewhat in love with that, and this is another way for me to experience it."
The movie is groundbreaking in many ways- not only is the main character a woman, but she's also bisexual, and the film features a sex scene between Theron and Sofia Boutella. "That's a community that's not heard very well," Theron explains. "It would have been a different relationship if it was with a man. It's one of the few times you see Lorraine really vulnerable. I love that it's not towards a man- I love that she's not vulnerable one time in the movie towards a man. She's vulnerable the only time to another woman."
The new movie is set in the late eighties, and having a good soundtrack was instrumental in recreating the eighties atmosphere. "I love the music in this movie," she she says. "I had a bit of a princess moment about Depeche Mode. I might have pressured everybody to put Depeche Mode in this movie. It's real nostalgia for me."