20th Century Fox
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When Ridley Scott — whose film credits include Alien and Blade Runner — announces his return to science fiction, the world takes notice. And unless you’ve been in a coma for the last nine months, you’re probably aware that Prometheus opens in a matter of days. We got to go to London for the film’s premiere, and while there, we chatted with much of the cast. Read on for highlights of our conversation with the always lovely Charlize Theron.

On the Prometheus spaceship:
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“The entire ship was built. And then I mean like every button, every wall, every hallway, every crevice of that ship was built. I think Arthur did an amazing job. The only green screen that I saw was through the windows.
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And then even on what the monitors were showing, like the scene where I’m watching Weyland out in space, all of that was — he had like pre-CGI’d all of that for us on video so that it was projected for us to watch. So little green screen, for me, anyway. And from the inside of the ship very, very little.”
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Whether she used the Alien movies as inspiration:
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“No. No, I didn’t. No. Because it didn’t feel necessary. And I think there is a part of me that’s always a little bit like, why would I torture myself with some — just in case you forgot how big the shoes are you’re walking in, take a look again. You know what I mean? Like I think I pussy out. So I’m not that kind of person. There was nothing that was relevant for me to have to do that because my character is — we weren’t making a prequel or a sequel or anything like that. This is just a similar world. And that was really it.”
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The collaborative nature of the set:
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“There were even moments where Michael Fassbender and I would, you know, kind of enhance on our scenes and talk about it. And Ridley was incredibly just open to all of that stuff, you know. It was just a very collaborative set. And it really didn’t felt — my fear was that we were trying to answer things that you can’t answer and that’s when it becomes problematic. And it wasn’t that kind of set. We really just enjoyed asking all the big questions and not necessarily finding the answers.”
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Michael Fassbender’s dirty sense of humor:
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“He’s like — he took it to a whole new level because he always had his computer around, which I don’t travel with props. I just travel with my talent. (laughs) But he, yeah, he always had a computer around. And fuck me that bastard can pull some nasty shit up. So (laughs) there was a lot of that like in the corner. You know, we’d be waiting for people or whatever and Fassy would always be on his computer like, check this out.
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I’m like, oh, my God. I have to do a scene right now, you asshole.”
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The controlling nature of her character, Meredith Vickers:
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“She’s very much in constant need to wanna be in control of everything. That’s all she’s doing, from the moment that the movie kinda takes off, she’s up first. She’s making sure. You know, there’s always something about her trying to control the situation. And so Ridley and I talked a lot about people who come from, you know, especially women who come from these kind of dynasties that are kind of set up by men, their fathers usually.
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And there might be other sons in the family, but for some reason the girl just kinda like has the DNA of the dad. And so we wanted to have something of her kinda come across that was reflective of those people that I had seen and know. And when I watched those women there was something very interesting about her almost being condescending and passive aggressive in the way she talks, you know. And it’s tricky ’cause you don’t want the audience to kind of go, ugh, you know. But it was — I liked that because it made it a little bit more interesting to me than someone who is just completely confident and they’re controlled the entire time.
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Or not — so I didn’t wanna play it in the extremities. I wanted it to just be kind of that she was condescending most of the time. And she was very passive aggressive. And I think all of that comes from a horrible place of insecurity and vulnerability.”
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The Mad Max remake she’s appearing in:
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“I leave in like two and a half weeks. And we start shooting, I think, around mid July, Namibia. And I’m fucking dying, too. It’s been three years. It’s time to skin this cat already. So yeah, I’m very excited about it.
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You know, I think that just like this that’s an interesting world. And I feel like I have a real interest in this world. And I think people will have an interest in this world because Alien kinda set that out for us. And I feel like the original Mad Max created such a vivid world that to go back and re-imagine it and kind of replay in that sandbox sounds like fun to me. And George really created a female character that I’ve just never — I’ve never ever — I’ve never read anything like this. I mean I’m scared shitless, but yeah.”
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Her favorite TV shows:
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“I like a lot of different shit. I like — I watch a lot of stuff that people are somewhat shocked by, but I am absolutely like foaming at the mouth with Game Of Thrones. Like I cannot not get enough of that. My — when I had — when my son came into my life that was our bottle-feeds like ’cause I couldn’t watch television, I slept so little. And that was my TiVo feed every two hour, watching Game Of Thrones. And my mom was like, is it — do you think it’s fine that you’re feeding your son while there’s like sword fights? And I was like, it’s fine, mom, it’s fine.”
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The grueling physical nature of shooting Prometheus:
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“Well, I just, you know, the gear was tricky. And I have a bad — I have like an old injury on my neck. So that space thing just wasn’t great for me, but yeah, I mean, I didn’t — when I read it, it was like this much of a description. [Denotes a small amount with her fingers, most likely only a few sentences] And, you know, with Ridley that turns into like a three-week shoot. I was like, dude, it’s said I was running for this much. (laughs) Why are we still running? Why am I still running?”
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Check back for our final interview with Michael Fassbender, and don’t forget to read our conversations with Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Guy Pearce, and Ridley Scott.
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Prometheus opens June 8th, 2012.
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Synopsis: Ridley Scott, director of “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” returns to the genre he helped define. With PROMETHEUS, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.