Charlize Theron On Sharing With Spotlight With Those Who Need It The Most
To celebrate Breitling’s newly launched Chronomat for Women timepieces, the award-winning actress and producer reveals why the on-going pandemic has been cause for action, self-reflection, and downtime with her family time
“I don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t trying to use my voice for something that mattered to me.”
Sharing the spotlight doesn’t always come naturally to those who have made a career from being in the limelight. Charlize Theron, however, isn’t shy when it comes to using her influence for the greater good. The South African-born Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress and producer does more than simply shatter the stereotype of a typical Hollywood A-Lister, rather, she actively uses her fame to shed light on important causes, raising awareness and inspiring change around the world. Which is precisely why Breitling has chosen to work with her for its new Spotlight Squad (alongside American ballet dancer Misty Copeland and Chinese actress-philanthropist Yao Chen) in celebration of its new Chronomat for Women range.
While we’re all aware of Charlize’s on-screen success, most recently in her roles as Andromache “Andy” of Scythia in Netflix’s The Old Guard (which her production company Denver and Delilah Productions co-produced) and for her portrayal of Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly in Bombshell, she is also the founder of The Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP), which she founded in 2007. The organisation invests in African youth and their ability to keep themselves and their peers safe from HIV/AIDS. Recently, CTAOP joined forces with humanitarian agency CARE and also the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) to create Together for Her; an initiative that aims to raise awareness and resources, and stand in solidarity with women and girls around the world affected by domestic violence during COVID-19.
Here, she speaks with Bazaar about the new Breitling timepieces; how CTAOP works to best support local communities throughout Sub-Saharan Africa; and why living through these unprecedented times has been cause for self-reflection on a deeper level.
You’re very passionate about shining the spotlight on important causes. How do you decide which to support?
You just follow your gut. There’s a human element and a reaction to things that you just naturally will have. We all respond to things differently.
When something is really emotionally tough for you, you know that it matters to you – that’s something I’ve always listened to. I don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t trying to use my voice for something that mattered to me. You realise the things that are important in your life, and you realise the things where it’s important for you to try to be part of a change; that’s how I gauge my involvement.
Why was it important to you to found the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP)? How did the organisation come to be?
When it came to the AIDS epidemic, Sub-Saharan Africa really, really suffered. It was always a no-brainer for me to want to work in that field – it was just trying to figure out how I could be the most productive. It wasn’t so much about the work, it was the resources that were lacking. I think when it comes to philanthropy, we’ve come a long way in realising that the answers aren’t necessarily always outside of the community. It’s about supporting those community members, those grassroot organisations that are doing very impactful work and asking them what they need [to get the job done.]
That’s CTAOP’s model; we come in, we listen, and then we try to facilitate. That’s important to me because I feel, ultimately, this needs to be looked at from a holistic [perspective]. You have to invest in the entire young person, in order to do that, you really have to have a true understanding of what their needs are – and to get to that, you need to get that information from people who live within these communities.
How is CTAOP’s Together for Her initiative working to support the most vulnerable people during the extraordinary times we’ve found ourselves in?
Together For Her really came from just checking in with our grantees and seeing how they were doing throughout the pandemic. Consistently, we were hearing back about how gender-based violence and domestic violence were skyrocketing. It was really out of a need and necessity to create some sort of a platform where we could support organisations who were overwhelmed with the number of women and children needing help. It’s been incredible. For one, when we started the initiative, there was this real aggressive global reaction to it, which was really amazing. I don’t know what it is; maybe because we’re in the middle of a pandemic people are more sensitive to this stuff. But it felt like people really tapped into that idea of how horrible it is for so many women and children out there.
But we have a bigger issue here; we’re looking at Together For Her as a platform for us to really bring some attention to gender-based violence – and not just in South Africa. That being said, there’s a femicide happening in South Africa, nobody is talking about it, but to also bring awareness to it globally [with Together For Her] will force us to have to address bigger issues like equality, equal pay and defining women in their societies with bigger roles. We really hope that the initiative will evolve into something along the lines of that faith.
How have these unprecedented times shaped you as a person?
The first thing that comes to mind is how complacently I’ve been living in a society where systemic racism has been alive and well. It’s not just about the unnecessary amount of violence around police brutality, but the bigger picture of how we are all living in a system that is set up to keep [African and African-American] people in a place where, when we ask them to live to their full potential as individuals, and it’s really an impossible task; we’re setting them up for failure.
I think we’ve all had to take a real inventory, look at ourselves and [address] the things that we don’t think about; asking ourselves bigger questions that go deeper, just like the caste-system author Isabel Wilkerson mentions in her book, Caste. That’s really been at the forefront for me, just asking myself more questions and educating myself as much as I possibly can.
You’ve worked with Breitling before as part of their Cinema Squad. How is it different this time, being part of the new Spotlight Squad?
Given the circumstances of the world right now – in this kind of cultural revolution that we’re in – it’s really nice to be in a group of strong, diverse women. In my last campaign I was the only woman; there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s nice that Breitling felt it’s time for three women to come together. While we couldn’t shoot together because of COVID-19, I’m still dying to spend some time with these two ladies.
What excites you about the new Breitling collection?
It’s beautiful to begin with, really stunning, and when you see them all lined up next to each other, there’s something about [the watches] as a collection that just feels so cohesive and well-curated.
This idea that a watch doesn’t dictate what or how your day should go, or what you should wear, is something that’s important to women. We want to be able to go to the gym in the morning and not have to change our watch when we come home, or go out to dinner. I’m a big fan of the Chronomat 32. I don’t even know if I can articulate it, it’s just the feeling I get when I put it on. There’s something about the size of it that I really love. I haven’t taken it off.
How have you been spending all this extra time on your hands, when it’s come to the lockdowns, and shelter-in-places, which occurred within these past few months?
There was free time in the beginning because everything was kind of just up in the air. It was really just me and my kids, and it was nice because I was planning to take some time off and stay at home anyway, as I had just come off a massive promotion for the movie Bombshell. Obviously, it’s not nice that it was a pandemic, but I was really happy to just be locked in my house with my kids; we did a lot of puzzles and watched a lot of movies. It kind of picked up with my production company and, you know, with access to Zoom and all that stuff, we’re able to move forward.
We’ve just been very, very active to get a fleet ready for when we can go out there and shoot. The kids are being schooled remotely on Zoom. Our days are slowly filling back up. There’s not a lot of free time anymore; we’re trying to find a new normal, which is something I think a lot of people can relate to.
Images supplied. For more information, visit charlizeafricaoutreach.org and breitling.com
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s December 2020 issue.