Charlize Theron has spent the summer in modified Roman Holiday fashion. Like Audrey Hepburn in the 1953 classic, Theron has been hard at work at the city’s Cinecittà studios, in this case filming the sequel to Netflix’s The Old Guard, a taut action movie about a band of immortal mercenaries. Also like Hepburn, Theron is momentarily a brunette, albeit with a short asymmetrical cut befitting her hardened character, Andy—short for Andromache of Scythia. Fan sites for the comic-book series pinpoint Andy’s origins to the Western Steppe, circa 4,700 BCE, giving her an understandably weary worldview. But Theron (South Africa, 1975) is joyfully embracing her role as a movie star stationed in the Eternal City. 

“I’ve never been a person to just sit on my couch and procrastinate, or not take advantage of the access that I have in the outside world—to go and do something that is just really fun or mischievous. Or naughty. Or something that makes you laugh,” Theron says by phone, explaining how she’s soaking up as much Italian life as possible. It’s a late summer morning in Rome. The actor begins by asking, like a concerned citizen, what time it is at the other end of the line. “A cool 4:55 a.m.,” I reply, trying to sound upbeat and breezy, but the effect is more of a syllabic rasp. “Oh my God, girl!” Theron answers. “I apologize. I’m the asshole who made you wake up so early.” She squeezes in three more apologies, as if call times don’t frequently have her in a makeup chair before dawn. This is the Theron I’ve been hoping to reach: preternaturally grounded, tells it like it is, attuned to the world. 

Theron is a change artist of a generation. Her live-wire portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster—helped along by prosthetic teeth, bleached brows, and an extra 30 pounds on her 5-foot-ten frame—earned her a best actress Oscar in 2004. Later that fall, Theron presented a different kind of blonde (Hollywood waves, sculpted cheekbones) as the new face of Dior’s J’Adore perfume. Over the intervening 18 years, as Theron cycled through disparate roles—corporate minder in the sci-fi horror Prometheus (2012), grease-smeared Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), neon-lit spy in Atomic Blonde (2017), beleaguered mother in Tully (2018)—she has continued to shape-shift in golden-toned J’Adore campaigns, many by music-video director Jean-Baptiste Mondino. 

The latest iteration of the fragrance, J’Adore Parfum d’Eau, could be imagined almost like a prequel to the 1999 original. A novel formulation entirely without alcohol, it evokes a primordial mingling of flowers and water—elevated in its composition (there are notes of jasmine sambac, magnolia, and neroli to tease out), but rendered, quite simply, as dew. Somehow the combination of structural refinement and at-ease delivery evokes its front woman, statuesque and straight-talking. In the below conversation, she thoughtfully unspools about hedonistic leanings, scent in storytelling, and an upcoming role, before signing off with a goodwill entreaty: “Go back to bed!” 

Vanity Fair: I was re-watching some of the early J’Adore ads, which have you climbing up silk fabric like an aerialist or wading through a bathhouse. What would you say is the imagined backstory for the J’Adore woman? I feel like she has stories to tell.

Charlize Theron: There was a hope for this to have some longevity in that narrative, so that we could see an evolution. But for me, the most important thing was always to just have an awareness of the world. [Dior is] a luxury brand, so let’s hold a mirror up and see what’s going on in the world.

I feel like there were real moments throughout our 18-year creative relationship where there was a detailed place for that. When we made the campaign with the bathhouse [in 2018], the women’s movement was coming to the forefront. There was this feeling that women were really understanding their power and standing together, so it was impossible to even imagine that campaign just being about me. Having it be so inclusive and diverse was something that I really appreciated and, I think, says a lot about who Dior is. 

What about this new J’Adore formula? How do you see it reflecting this moment?

We realized, all these years, we had this beautiful bottle that is like a piece of art. So we’re paying homage to that in this campaign. It felt like, Wow—how have we not done that? And the simplicity of this new fragrance—it’s revolutionary in the sense of how it was produced, with absolutely no alcohol. It’s water and flowers, with this milkiness to the liquid. There’s a dreamlike quality about this campaign too, the way Jean-Baptiste shot it. I think we need a little bit of dreaming right now, in the world that we’re living in.

The gravitational pull of reality is heavy lately. 

Real life is very real, right now. 

Is fragrance something you’ve utilized in character work?

Scent in general, I think, is a very important aspect of storytelling. I think that you really fail as a filmmaker or as a storyteller if you cannot bring the scent of the place—especially if you’re shooting in places where scent is so important. I mean, I can’t imagine doing a film like Mad Max: Fury Road and not constantly smelling that desert. Smelling that sand and that dust and the dry air.

The guzzoline.

Exactly. The diesel, all of that. You can’t make those movies and not smell it. Sometimes the best shower you take is after a day of work like that. Because you’re not just getting rid of dirt—you’re getting rid of smells and everything. It’s all so connected to the work. You’ll sometimes see a character pick up a shirt and smell it. The awareness of how humans behave or are connected to smell is very much part of storytelling—emotional storytelling. It’s always a memory of something, or the pleasure of something.

Speaking of which, Jonathan Van Meter, writing for Vogue, once called you an “unrepentant pleasure seeker.” What qualifies as pleasure for you these days?

It makes me sound like a heathen [laughs]. I’ll take it though. Listen, I’ve had a lot of trauma in my life, and I’ve learned that the other side of that is such a blessing. It’s something I don’t take for granted. So, I do seek it. I make an—it’s not even an effort. I’m in Rome right now, and I’m like, What can we do? Where can we go? Where can we eat? What streets can we walk down? I’m annoying my children because I’m just speaking in Italian to them right now. I say to them every day: We’re here until September, and then we’re not going to be here. We have to do all of it. 

You once said, speaking about your former smoking habit, that you didn’t smoke like normal people—you smoked to die. Do you bring that kind of intensity to other wellness-related habits of yours, good or bad? Having been a dancer, you probably always carry a certain focus within you.

There’s definitely a discipline that you carry—that’s good, I think. It’s why I’m happy that, for now, my children are interested in that. If you’re a part of a team or you’re in a dance company, there are rules. There’s a level of respect to teachers. And you have to really push yourself. All of those are qualities, no matter what you do in your life, you’ll always adhere to them and they’ll have a positive effect on whatever you’re doing.

Listen, I think that self-awareness is one of the most important things that we can have. And I was very self-aware that I was going to smoke myself to death. I was an addict. I was a complete addict. And the only end to how I was smoking was going to be death. I think of food in a much more educated way then maybe I did 20 years ago, understanding food more as fuel to your body. It doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy what I eat still—I certainly do. I love food. But I have a better understanding of what my body works well on, especially when I’m working on a movie like this, where I need all the energy possible.

Thinking about good and bad habits, your turn as Lady Lesso in The School for Good and Evil is coming up in October. What did you find delicious or intriguing about that role?

The look was really delicious. I really loved creating that with Paul Feig, having him be so trusting of me to take her in that direction. The walking sticks—Paul uses them as accessories to his incredible wardrobe, and as I walked on set, he handed me one of his. He was like, I think this will complete the look. It was just one of those Cinderella moments, like when Julia Roberts gets the necklace and the red dress in Pretty Woman. It was that moment where I was like, Oh my God, yes. He basically gave me all of his walking sticks—one of which I broke, and it was an antique. I felt really bad about it. I had to send it away to someplace in London, an underground secret hobbit world, and they fixed it for him. 

But it was a really fun character to inhabit, visually. To get into that hair and makeup and clothes, and then to play in a world that felt grounded but also fun and fantastical. My kids don’t get to watch a lot of my movies, so a huge motivation around this was, Here’s a film that I actually think is really grounded in great truths. It’s not just silly; it’s something that an entire family can enjoy. Which, by the way, as a mother, I can attest that it is hard to find stuff to watch with your kids that you enjoy.

You’re a blonde in real life. For a movie like Bombshell, in which you play Megyn Kelly, hair color takes on a richer meaning. With Atomic Blonde, you’ve got that Debbie Harry feeling. How do you see that shade being nuanced—blonde as uniform, blonde as armor?

The whole process always comes from pulling images as inspiration. And Deborah Harry was a big inspirational pull for us on [Atomic Blonde]. It was an ’80s film, and we wanted her to feel like there was an homage to that time period. But then you have to think of the logistics: Can you actually do action in this? That’s sometimes the biggest concern. But for me personally, I think hair color is a really big one. That’s the first thing that you can do as an actor that really just changes how you see yourself. I like the idea of somewhat submerging myself in something visual, that makes me feel like I’m escaping me and creating something other.

Your Old Guard character is a brunette, for a change. She’s also immortal. What are you doing to stick around for a while, in that spirit of immortality?

I would say the biggest thing is, I have children. I want to be around as long as I can for them. I also just really love life. I enjoy fitness—for me, that’s not a challenge. But as I get older, I realize it’s getting harder. I have to get that mindset correct. My mom always says, “If you snooze, you lose.” You’ve got to keep going. The rest is up to the universe. That, I can’t control.

J’Adore Parfum d’Eau

$148

Dior

This interview has been edited and condensed.