Chim and call him my friend. I think very rarely do people as great as that come into your life and have a huge influence on you. So I feel incredibly lucky that I got to experience that.
After seeing your Dior commercial, Kelly Clarkson said you were a goddess.
That's sweet!
Do you sometimes feel like you're a goddess? (laughter) I have this incredible team that travels with me and does this stuff. So there are moments when you do something like that, where you are just in it and you see the aftermath. I just did a new campaign with Jean-Baptiste who did the first campaign that everybody loved so much. He's actually coming into town and we are doing the print campaign on Sunday and he's bringing the commercial and everybody is in love with it, so I will see it. He sent me some clips where you look at that and just go, 'I am so lucky to have that hair person and that makeup person,' you know you what I mean? You know that's not in your hands.
There are moments where I go, 'This is so fantastic.' (laughter) It's sixteen hour days and you are tired, and you have got too much eyeliner in your eye, but all of those things are princess problems.
I just have to watch out for the croissant basket, (laughs) that's my biggest thing because that's when I feel like a goddess, I am like, 'All of these croissants are for me?'
In a world of privilege where there are so many people unprivileged, how important is it to find a balance there for you, especially when you see yourself as so blessed?
Well I have always worked in the field of HIV and anti-rape and that's been the last twenty years of my life. And coming from a country like South Africa, it's impossible to forget how incredibly blessed my life has turned out and how that is not the case for many people in my country. So in starting my organisation in 2007, Charlize Theron Outreach Africa project, we focus now primarily on prevention care when it comes to HIV and AIDS and giving children, the youth of South Africa, some kind of future to look up to. Not only taking ownership of their health and making choices to actually save their own lives, but to actually give them something to live for and that has become a huge part of my life. That's the only reason that I go back to South Africa, that's my family and that's what I go back for. And my work with the UN couldn't be more neutralising and sobering to really, really witness the fortunate aspect of all of our lives. When I travel with the DRC or do any work with them in Africa, it's nothing short of miraculous that I am where I am. Is your mum the most important person in your life?
I think people are there for different reasons. I mean I think I have a closeness to my mum, we are friends, but she's my mother first and foremost and that's how I was raised. That's why I think we
are so close, because she never tried to just be my friend, she's my mum. And so I think that's why we have had the relationship that we have always had because it's a healthy one. She's not just my girlfriend, she just happened to be a person that I actually really like,and who I think is actually funny and all of that stuff. But she's the first person to put me in line, the way a parent does.
Does she do that still?
Yeah of course. I mean, in a way where she treats me like I am an adult. She doesn't treat me like I am twelve anymore, but we have a very healthy relationship in that sense.
When she gives you advice, how do you take it?
Do you feel it's like she's criticising you?
I mean, look, I think every child wants their parent to be proud of them and I think anybody who won't admit that is secretly hiding something.
I think there's definitely a sense when it comes to a child and their parent and I think we are all human beings and it can sometimes be harder to take criticism from a parent, and I have had moments with mum where she's like, 'That movie is a piece of shit!' (laughter) But I would rather her be incredibly honest because then when she says that movie is really good I really believe it. But yeah that's normal.
Can relate to what Lupita Nyong'o said when she won the Oscar, that every little girl's dream is valid?
And a very lovely moment because a lot of people don't acknowledge that I am African, and I ran into her parents backstage, and they said, 'Our African sister!' I completely relate to everything she's saying
APR-MAY 2014
Do you have a lot of Dior?
I do, I get spoiled. And so does my mum and my friends, and they are incredibly generous, yeah.
Is there something special from there that you keep for yourself?
All their products are great.