killer. tonight, the as you have probably not seen her before. >> wow, i didn't even know you fancied me. that's amazing. >> charlize theron. this is "piers morgan tonight." let's start with the obvious question. how do you actually pronounce your name? >> charlize theron. >> that's the american way. >> yes. yes. it's how -- it's what i thought would be easier for people. >> what is the correct south african, dare i say it, african's way of pronouncing this? >> charlize theron. >> sexier. say that again. you obviously were raised south african and presumably came to l.a. with a broad south african accent. and then you quite consciously went and taught yourself how to speak in an american accent, right? >> yeah, i mean, look, it was kind of -- i was kind of pushed let's start with the obvious question. how do you actually pronounce your name? >> charlize theron. >> that's the american way. >> yes. yes. it's how -- it's what i thought would be easier for people. >> what is the correct south african, dare i say it, african's way of pronouncing this? >> charlize theron. >> sexier. say that again. you obviously were raised south african and presumably came to l.a. with a broad south african accent. and then you quite consciously went and taught yourself how to speak in an american accent, right? >> yeah, i mean, look, it was kind of -- i was kind of pushed into a corner. i started going out on auditions. and the feedback was always, she's really great but can she do it in an american accent. my english was very poor. and i still, you'll hear, i make a lot of grammar mistakes. >> you can speak south african fluently? >> every day. my mother lives two miles away from me. >> let's have a burst. come on. i would love for you to speak south african to me. [ speaking foreign language ] >> wow, i didn't even know you fancied me. that's incredible. you speak it fluently? >> i think more fluently than i speak english. yes, definitely. >> well, ms. theron. woody harrelson got me very excited about interviewing you. >> woody? >> yeah. because you told "w" magazine a couple years ago, charlize is not like a delicate girl. she's a classic crowd, talented and able to tell more vulgar jokes than you and drink you under the table. >> none of this. >> guilty as charges? >> there's no truth to it whatsoever. >> there clearly is. i can't imagine you being vulgar. you seem such a nice girl. >> i'm not vulgar. i wouldn't say i'm vulgar. but, you know, i think i was raised by a broad. and some of that rubbed off. and i'm really -- i'm very -- i'm grateful for that. will smith one day said, what i like about you, chuck, is that you're like from the white house to the ghetto. i thought that was one of the best compliments. >> great phrase. >> yeah. i mean, you know -- >> he calls you chuck? >> yeah. >> it's getting evermore complicated. you're going to have to restate your name now. >> i know, seriously. >> you can't have americans calling you chuck. >> no. >> they'll call everybody chuck if you give them half a chance. >> look, i love working with woody and we actually did a film together that was a true story of this very important sexual class action -- class action sexual harassment case that took place in minnesota. it was really heavy material. >> this is why i like you. you can just play conventional pretty blond stuff until you're 108. but actually you choose -- >> actually you can't do that until 108. that's why i chose this career because i want to actually work until i'm 108. and i don't think you can have longevity if you just kind of fall back on one aspect of what you are. >> you were always choose these challenging roles. they're always quite edgy, the ones that i've seen. they're always a little bit dangerous. you know, you take risks. i like that about you as an actress. it's never the safe route, is it? >> i don't think human beings are -- i think we're pretty complicated. i do think there's a lack of -- a lack of interest and willingness to explore the kind of not so attractive side of what it is to be a woman. and the fact that we don't want to necessarily as a society celebrate the fact that we are complex and that we are, you know, we're flawed. not all of us are perfect mothers and not all of us are perfect wives. we're complex. i felt that when "monster" came to me, the thing that was very clear to me is that it really read like something that de niro would get or some great guy would get to play this very conflicted character. and very few times in my career have i been given that opportunity to kind of tackle some -- a female that represents the conflict that i think is really very evident in who we are. >> what flaws do you have? if you don't mind me saying, too obvious. >> not me. i'm speaking of other women. no, i'm not talking about myself. imperfect. >> let's get on the therapist couch here. >> oh, dear god, what is this, an hour of time? >> yeah. we have plenty of time. seriously. >> i think we need another few hours. look, i am just as flawed as the woman next to me. i really am. i think that the great thing about aging has been the acknowledgement of my flaws. and i think it's kind of -- it's given me a sense of peace. and so, so far i'm really loving the aging process because that kind of wisdom of like really kind of understanding why you sometimes do do the crap that you do. >> do you really love the aging process? >> so far, i said. i said so far. >> obviously treating you quite well. >> look, i'm only 35. my god, we're talking about this like i'm in -- >> i didn't mention the aging process. >> i'm only 35. and so i consider that pretty young. >> you haven't actually spelled out any flaws yet. >> okay. well, if you have to, if you really want to cover this. >> you raised it. >> i suffer from a bit of ocd. >> i know about this. closets have to be perfect. >> yeah. i'm a bit compulsive, yeah. >> you actually -- you stay awake at night worrying that someone's closet is -- >> i have a thing about things that are hidden. yeah, i have a hard time, especially when i'm like renting a house, if i'm working on a film and i don't know what's in all the -- i have to know what's in all the closets. this is so pathetic. i cannot believe we're talking about this. >> you're sounding really weird. this is great. you get to these random houses and what do you you do? >> the first thing i do is i inspect every closet and drawer. >> fantastic. >> and then i have to -- i have a -- like a -- it's just my organization. i don't say that this is just kind of how my head works. things that i -- like i have to put things where i think they belong in a room or how you kind of have that access to them. it's really pathetic. this is so bad. seriously. this is -- let's stop talking about it i'm single. i need to find a man. >> this is not going to help. >> this is not going to help. >> guys are going to go, who is this weirdo. >> exactly. >> let's move on. let's go back to the devil's advocate, which is the movie that kind of springboarded you into the a-list. let's have a little clip and watch this. >> you know, you buy a couple of new suits. >> it's a little more than that. >> i have this whole place to fill and i know we've got all this money and it's supposed to be fun but it's not. it's like a test. the whole thing is like one big test. >> fascinating watching you because i know you don't like watching yourself, do you? >> i'm -- i have gotten a lot better. since i've been producing i've gotten a lot better with it. i hate my voice. i hate the way i sound. i think that was always -- >> it's not your real voice, that's the problem. >> maybe because it sounds very foreign. but since i've become a producer and i've had to sit in editing rooms for hours and watch footage be cut together, i think -- i think i've gotten better to kind of take myself out of it and really look at it as making a film and you kind of take all that weight off just yourself, which has been really great for me as an actor. >> you bring incredible intensity to this stuff. scared the life out of me. i'm just watching you from a monitor. you're like a raging volcano in some of these parts. >> a raging volcano who likes to clean. >> yes. the most weird type of raging volcano. >> look, that film, taylor hackford, the director of that film, cast me after several screen tests and auditions. and the studio didn't want me. the studio thought that i was too pretty. and taylor really fought for me. he really fought for me. and he's very much an actor's director and i really kind of -- i have to thank him because every moment on that set i never felt like i was treated like, you know, a new actor and didn't know anything. he really kind of gave me a stage where i could be a raging maniac. >> do you know how much money you've taken at the box office, in movies you've been in? >> god no. >> $800 million. >> wow. >> from 26 movies. >> wow. >> that's not bad, is it? >> that sounds good. >> you're the billion dollar woman. >> no, i don't -- i don't pay that much attention to that. >> you don't care how much they make with these films? >> i care. i want people to go and see my movies. i'm definitely not one of those -- >> if i could offer you a choice now, you can be a lead actress in a movie that's going to make $800 million in the next two months but it would be critically hammered, everyone is going to hate you in it, but the -- >> that wouldn't be the reason that i would choose it. >> no, you can have one or two sent their yous. or i would put you in a movie that is incredibly critically acclaimed in which you win awards for your acting but it completely bombs at the box office. which one would you prefer at this stage of your career? >> i guess i would take the one that makes the billion dollars, but the critics don't care for because then i can go make seven of the ones that i love. >> that's fascinating answer. that's not what i thought you would say. >> that's the business side of me. i understand how this industry works. what i will say in all honesty is that even though i understand how this machine is driven and how it works, i -- even in making the choices that i have on the bigger studio films, i feel really, really lucky that -- and i'm grateful that i have never really truly felt like i've done myself any -- i haven't compromised to the place where i feel uncomfortable. i've chosen those big movies with still a belief that there's something creative there that i like and the story telling or whatever it was. so -- it's not a complete sellout. >> no, i accept that. we'll take a short break. when we come back i want to talk to you about south africa where you grew up and about your mother who has been this heroic constant figure in your life. >> the broad. >> the broad. the other broad. 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[ male announcer ] the audi a8, chosen by car & driver as the best luxury sedan in a recent comparison test. let me just give it to you straight. the truth is, i'm a hooker. i'm trying to clean my life up here, you know, go straight and christian and all. so, if there's anything that you can help me with -- >> i see you've been convicted of a felony. >> yeah, but see that was because -- >> that doesn't even matter because the best you'll get is factory work. hey, todd, do we even have factory work? >> i'm sorry. look, i'm just trying to talk to you woman to woman truthfully. hey, hey, hey! >> that was charlize theron as eileen warner in "monster." that wasn't just heralded as a great movie. i read serious critics in america saying it was one of the greatest performances in the history of acting. an amazing thing to say about a young actress in your position then, but it was an astounding film. and so visceral and raw, that character, and when you look back on it now, and obviously brilliant for you in your career, but to actually play that role, what was the experience like? >> that was the greatest gift i think i've ever been given in my career. >> really? >> yeah, look, it's absolutely amazing to win an academy award. i'm not going to sit here and be jaded about it. >> did you watch the oscars as a young girl? >> i did, yeah. >> you remember watching these people winning and thinking it was all impossibly glamorous and exciting? >> yeah, but the funny thing was that i would watch the oscars and i would go to movies, i loved movies, but i didn't know the celebrity aspect of it or i didn't -- i didn't know their names. like i would just be like, oh, that's that guy in that movie with the dog. that was my connection to it. and i also had this very kind of -- my perspective was just i thought that tom hanks was like my neighbor in south africa. he just happened to be an actor. like i really didn't understand, you know, the reality of what that world was or anything. >> what was the reality of life in south africa for you? pretty tough from everything i've read and heard from you. >> tough, but look, i had an incredible childhood in south africa. i grew up in a country with a lot of turmoil. and, look, i went through -- i lived in a country that went through probably one of the biggest historical changes in this -- in my lifetime. now, with everything that's happening in north africa and in the middle east, like, it's probably the equivalent to that, but when apartheid was in 1991, and in '94 with the first free election and the first democratic election, that was a really huge thing. and i think it was when i was around 19, 20 that i really truly understood. before that i didn't know anything different. but traveling and really understanding where i came from, i understood how what we had gone through as a country and as a nation. but living when i was raised in south africa, i was raised somewhat isolated in a rural farm community. my parents had a road construction company. they built a lot of the roads in south africa. and the farm was really just used for us to survive on, like foodwise. we grew and ate everything off the land, but it was really to hold the machinery for the road construction company and also everybody that worked for the company lived on the farm with us. i was an only child, i was raised with zulus and others and their children. >> an amazing experience. >> it really was. and i was only aware of what was going on in south africa through the fact that my parents were very much outspoken about politics. and that was kind of an every night event. having dinner and having my mom and my dad talk about the situation in south africa and politics, and also really witnessing racism through some of my friends and that knowledge of apartheid was very evident. so i think i was blessed to have the childhood that i -- you know, you have to kind of look at the glass half empty or half full. i grew up in a beautiful country with a lot of problems. i was raised by two great parents, a great mother who made me very much aware of having a political awareness of where you come from and also of the world. that i feel like a lot of my friends in america don't necessarily have because they were raised in a country that's been very fortunate. >> when i went to south africa last summer and went around the seweta town township which is an incredible thing to do, millions of people living in poverty, and you would imagine -- because they're living in such poverty, their spirit would be really low and depressed. it couldn't have been more different. the joy that i saw amongst these people who had nothing. and it was really, i think, from hope. they have been given hope by nelson mandela. and they had also been taught not to complain by nelson man della. if ever a man should have complained about what had happened to him shall it was nelson mandela. yet he came out of prison and said we're not going to exact revenge, we're not going to have a bloody war. we're going to forgive and move on and we're going to be a country that unites. and that's exactly what's happened. >> and a lot of politicians can say that, but it will have no effect. and he actually has -- his cause and effect was brilliant. >> have you met him? >> yes, yes. >> when did you meet him? >> the first time i met him, i had just won the academy award. that was the first time i met him. >> what does he say to you? >> the nicest things that any icon or hero could possibly say to you. things that i'm so not deserving of. >> like what? >> just, you know, giving me credit for being a south african and putting south africa on the map, which i didn't, but i'll take that any day from nelson mandela. >> but it was a big deal for a south african to win an oscar. not many south africans have won oscars over the years. >> not in that category, i don't think. >> any other? >> yes. >> women? >> yeah. >> who else? >> i don't know about woman. >> quite something. >> it's pretty special. pretty special. yeah. for this farm girl, it's pretty special. >> pretty extraordinary. and i want to come after the next break to what i was going to get to but we got sidetracked, your mother, who is also, i think, probably you would say pretty special. >> mm-hmm. yeah. >> one of the reasons you're here. ♪ ♪ [ son ] you realize, it's gotta run out sometime. 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