Charlize Theron, Plus an Interview With ‘Long Shot’ Director Jonathan Levine | Career Arc

Two Days in the Valley 1996

Rob's breakthrough pick. An extremely-90s LA ensemble; her character Helga Svelgen is introduced via a bloody Polaroid and a James Spader sex scene. 'You're not too tall, it's the world that's too short.'

That Thing You Do! 1996

Amanda's pick, and the first time she saw Theron: the beautiful, cold hometown girlfriend who dumps the drummer for her dentist, playing vapid and in on the joke.

The Devil's Advocate 1997

Sean's breakthrough pick. As Mary Ann Lomax, the one person trying to act for real inside a ludicrous Al Pacino/Keanu Reeves movie, curly blonde to shorn brunette.

Celebrity 1998

Minor Woody Allen; her character is literally named Supermodel. Nobody on screen can talk to her like a human.

The Astronaut's Wife 1999

The Cider House Rules 1999

The warm-bath literary adaptation; not the main character.

The Legend of Bagger Vance 2000

Reindeer Games 2000

Stuck beside Ben Affleck, part of the long stretch subservient to the male lead.

Sweet November 2001

The Italian Job 2003

The popcorny heist mode Amanda came to her through.

Monster 2003

Patty Jenkins's Aileen Wuornos. The example everyone cites for uglify-to-win-an-Oscar, but the hosts land on: braver at the time than in memory, and as much for going all the way as for the teeth.

Head in the Clouds 2004

One of the new-lead swings that immediately followed the win, and it flopped.

North Country 2005

A second Oscar nomination, for a mining-industry sexual-harassment drama that failed at the box office and left little cultural footprint.

Aeon Flux 2005

Her bid for action stardom, notoriously recut and mismanaged; a dry run for Atomic Blonde that lost money. On Simmons's podcast she just went 'ugh.'

In the Valley of Elah 2007

Paul Haggis's first film after Crash; heavy-handed, with a good Tommy Lee Jones.

Hancock 2008

Roughly ten years ahead of Captain Marvel. She does the emotional lifting opposite Will Smith; the twist is obvious in the first ten minutes.

Mad Max: Fury Road 2015

Sean's pinnacle and, the room agrees, her best film. Furiosa is a near-silent, glowering, John Wayne-stoic performance behind the wheel, the image you now picture as new Charlize.

Young Adult 2011

Rob's pinnacle. A stunted, misanthropic YA author the movie graciously declines to redeem. It's the tipping point where she reinvented herself just as movie stars stopped mattering.

Tully 2018

Amanda's pinnacle. A cool pivot straight off the action run; the middle-hour two-hander with Mackenzie Davis is the best stretch of the movie, even if the ending is too neat.

Atomic Blonde 2017

Amanda's favorite. The staircase fight and a genuinely great performance under the confusing triple-cross plot; a raucous South by screening that never quite crossed over.

Snow White and the Huntsman 2012

Hamming it up as the evil queen; best remembered now for the Kristen Stewart/Rupert Sanders tabloid moment.

Prometheus 2012

Sean defends it; her role is subservient to Guy Pearce's ancient character.

A Million Ways to Die in the West 2014

Seth MacFarlane's very bad Western comedy, the 'cool girl' streak at its most ineffective.

The Fate of the Furious 2017

As Cypher, a part likely written for a man, seemingly yelling into a microphone at Vin Diesel from a blacked-out room.

The Addams Family 2019

Forthcoming then: she voices Morticia in the animated film.

Bombshell 2019

Then titled Fair and Balanced, Jay Roach's Fox News drama, with Theron as Megyn Kelly.

Long Shot 2019

A crowd-pleasing shade for her: a powerful politician who falls for Seth Rogen's schlub speechwriter. The hosts argue it short-circuits the usual rom-com tropes (she's already funny and human, doesn't need a man to fix her) and is honest about both the chemistry and how striking she is at 40-something. Features a Boyz II Men performance.

Long Shot 2019

Dan Sterling wrote it during the Obama years; Rogen and Theron produced. Levine reworked it toward 2019, aiming for an old-Hollywood Hepburn/Tracy two-hander with a lighter political touch than Colbert or Vice.

Warm Bodies 2013

Shot, like Long Shot, in Montreal; the last script Levine wrote himself, and his own idea of a romantic comedy.

50/50 2011

Where he learned the two-camera, improv Apatow style he still uses, and first pushed Rogen toward vulnerability.

The Night Before 2015

The prior collaboration where he felt improvisation was crowding out the filmmaking.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane 2006

His debut; sold big out of Toronto, then barely came out. His cautionary tale about festival mythology.

The Wackness 2008

Won the Sundance audience award and didn't capitalize the way he'd hoped.

Funny People 2009

Levine's example of Rogen doing vulnerability outside his own films.

Steve Jobs 2015

The 'Jobs movie,' cited as more Rogen dramatic work.

Knocked Up 2007

The rom-com Long Shot is measured against; Levine likes that it never labors to prove its woman isn't funny.

This Is the End 2013

Neighbors 2014

Vice 2018

Adam McKay's; the pointed-political-comedy model Levine deliberately did not want to make.

Closer 2004

He rewatched the Julia Roberts confrontation the morning of Long Shot's breakup scene, for the Mike Nichols blocking.

When Harry Met Sally... 1989

One of the sophisticated rom-com touchstones.

Pat and Mike 1952

The kind of Hepburn/Tracy movie Levine watches in pre-production but doesn't assign to his actors.

Game Night 2018

An Edgar Wright-ish comedy he stumbled into that made him feel good about the genre's future.

Ingrid Goes West 2017

How he first heard about O'Shea Jackson Jr.

Straight Outta Compton 2015

Where he'd already seen Jackson.

Us 2019

The last thing he saw in a theater; loved it, admits he was a little confused.