Fitness
Charlize Theron On Why She Loves Working Out
Charlize Theron is the pioneer of the woman-led action hero, here’s how she fights aging with muscle.
Body
I love feeling strong and healthy. Feeling capable. Working out and living a healthy life gives you this inner confidence. With my training in my personal life, that’s for me. And then working out for a film, that’s always to dig deeper and do justice to these characters – you want to be believable and you want the audience to truly invest and believe in these characters; these people.
One of my favorite elements of this job is dipping into these worlds and these different types of workouts. The physicality is a big part of it – how someone moves and how someone carries themselves. That says a lot about a person. With a role, physicality can sometimes say so much more than words.
Mind
In my career I’ve learnt capoeira, I’ve been able to learn gymnastics from a member of Cirque du Soleil on Mad Max and had to bulk and pack on muscle with a film I’ve got on the horizon called Atomic Blonde. I was grappling and doing hours-upon-hours of hand-to-hand combat, kicks, tactical handgun training, standing judo, jiu jitsu – that was intense.
With that film there are these long takes that really show-off the complexity; you really can see the choreography and training that went into it. I can’t wait for people to see that film. The training for that was so rewarding.
Soul
In my own life exercise is a lot more conventional. I love yoga and I’m also into cycle classes. I find that intense and it’s my go-to cardio exercise. In my own time I do light weights with high reps, and a good amount of mat work. It’s really to feel good and to help with my strength, stamina, flexibility and agility.
I do get a kick out of working out, it does genuinely make me feel so good – both the process of working out and the results of working out.
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