STILL IN THE ZONE

Action queen Charlize Theron talks about losing roles to younger actresses and why nothing’s holding her back

- NICI DE WET

IF SHE could have a conversation with her 20-year-old self, she’d tell her this: “Don’t have a nervous breakdown about it. Getting older really isn’t that bad.”

She was always in such a rush to get things done, the thought of the constantly ticking clock driving her to do more, be more and push, push, push.

“But now I’d tell that person to calm down and not hit the Chardonnay too hard,” she says. “Being in your 40s is really okay.”

Especially if you’re Charlize Theron – one of South Africa’s finest exports, a beauty with old-school Hollywood glamour and an actress with the ability to change things up like a chameleon.

Just take her latest project, the Netflix superhero movie The Old Guard. The 44-year-old beauty stars as Andy, a feisty but world-weary leader of immortal warriors who must right the planet’s wrongs.

It’s a great escapist caper, perfect for these times of worry and woe – and millions of people agree. Since its 10 July release on the streaming service, it’s been watched in 72 million households and is “already among the top-10 most popular Netflix films ever”, Netflix tweeted.

There’s talk it could overtake the top spot from Chris Hemsworth’s thriller Extraction, and become the most popular made-for-Netflix movie in the platform’s history. “It’s pretty nutty, right,” Charlize told Variety. “Who would’ve thought?”