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Charlize on her new movie, getting dirty, and more | oct282005_847_lg

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What do you make of the Oscar buzz surrounding North Country?
CHARLIZE THERON: Look, it's nice to hear. They could be saying this movie should go straight to video. But it isn't why I wanted to do it. It's always frightening when that kind of talk happens this early. People get crazy. Madness ensues.

What was it about the character of Josey Aimes that you hooked into?
I liked that she was incredibly flawed. She was really just town-gossip material. Her strength didn't come from a feisty personality — it came from this primal instinct: I've got two kids to support and I'll do anything I can for them.

The scene in the union hall, when Josey gets barraged with sexist catcalling while trying to give a speech, is so intense it's almost hard to watch. What was it like to shoot?
That was my first three days of principal photography. We brought the guys in, 400 of them, and when I walked into that hall for the first time we started shooting immediately. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what they were going to say, how hardcore they were going to be. It was a little bit too real. I broke out in hives and started hyperventilating and swore at Niki and told her she was a bitch. But I wonder what that scene would have been like if we'd shot it three weeks later, when I was a little more comfortable in that environment. I don't know if it would have ended up that way. I never acted in those three days.

Did you have your own experiences of sexual harassment to draw on?
No, I've never been sexually harassed.

Really, not even in some subtle Hollywood way?
No. I mean, the couple of times some dude did something disgusting are irrelevant. Even if that was somebody's intention, it's not something that would fly. That's why it's not even worth talking about the couple of sleazy guys you might have met. It's just not an option. If I spot it, it's done. I'm out of there.

Is that something that goes back to your childhood?
When I was growing up, it was ''a man is a man and a man does a man's job.'' Yet at the same time, my mother had a road construction company and that was considered a man's work. So I never really paid that much attention to the culture. I grew up just thinking, If my mom can build roads, I could do whatever I wanted.


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