It’s always easy to look back in hindsight at our mistakes and realize how we should have done things differently, andCharlize Theronis having one of those moments while looking back atAeon Flux. Back in 2005, Theron starred in the film which was a live-action adaptation of the MTV animated series. Theron stars as the titular warrior in a story set in a post-apocalyptic 2415, following a deadly virus’s decimation of humanity centuries prior.
Aeon Fluxwasn’t a hit at the box office, failing to earn back its budget in its theatrical run. Worse yet for the adaptation, it was pummeled with negative reviews, as critics were not impressed. It sits with an abysmal 9% score at Rotten Tomatoes, showing just how reviled the film was upon its release. But none of that was surprising for Theron, according to the Oscar winner herself.
In a new interview withTHR, Theron spoke about the pressure of coming into an adaptation of a “brilliant” TV series, clearly a fan of the source material. At the time, Theron says she was trying to shed the “depressing” image she had. She refers to the story of when, as a teenager, Theron witnessed her mother shooting her father in self-defense after he came home drunk and threatened them with a gun. For theMonsterstar, taking onAeon Fluxwas not just exciting as a fan, but it was also a way to try and create a new image for herself as someone who doesn’t need to be pitied. Unfortunately, she realized during filming that the film was ill-fated.
“It was one of the scariest things, to walk onto a set of a show that’s so developed and so brilliant. But I think I needed that, to put myself out there in a different way, because people thought of me as someone who was fing depressing, like my mother shot my father. And I just fucking loved that show, and this is going to sound so ‘poor me,’ but I do feel like sometimes, as women, we get one shot and I knew thatAeon Fluxwas going to be a fing flop. I knew it from the beginning, that’s why I didArrested Development.”
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Aeon Flux’s Transition Into Live-Action Didn’t Work Out Well
At the time, Theron felt that she just had to make it to the end of production, feeling that turning the tide of the project’s quality was out of her hands. She now feels she should have instead taken the bull by the horns as Tom Cruise would have done, insisting that changes be made until she was happier with what they were doing.
“You fight until the bitter end. With that one, I don’t know if I had the answers for how to [fix it], but I definitely knew we were in trouble. I wasn’t a producer on it, and I didn’t really have the experience to say what I believe Tom Cruise has maybe said for the past 20 years, which is, ‘Shut this sh*t down, get four more writers on it and let’s figure this out.’ Instead, I’m going, ‘Oh God, I’ve just got to get through this day, I have bronchitis, but let’s keep shooting.’ Now I imagine all these male actors going, ‘Shut it down for six months!’ And it’s like, f**k, no one told me that was an option.”
