The Oscar winner and action icon photographs herself at home for EW’s latest digital cover.
Need someone who can single-handedly take down an entire room full of bad guys?
What about fighting on horseback?
KiKi Layne, Luca Marinelli, Marwan Kenzari, Charlize Theron, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in ‘The Old Guard.'.AIMEE SPINKS/NETFLIX
just, what else you got?
Theron’s Andy, a.k.a.
It’s just about people."
In some ways,The Old Guard(out July 10) feels like your typical summer blockbuster.
When Rucka first conceived his graphic novel about unkillable soldiers, he started with the very eldest: Andy.
“Like, the whole damn world needed to get off her lawn.”
KiKi Layne, Luca Marinelli, Marwan Kenzari, Charlize Theron, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in ‘The Old Guard.'.AIMEE SPINKS/NETFLIX
“I rarely got to look up on screen and see myself at all.
This character, Nile, is exactly that.”
“It’s a story of the power of love,” adds Marinelli.
Joe and Nicky’s relationship is plucked straight from the comic.
“I wanted a happy queer couple,” he explains.
They have what they have because they have this gift.
You are magical to me.
My blessing isn’t that I get an eternal life.
My blessing is I found you.'"
“They just clicked.
I remember when Luca left, Marwan said, ‘That felt so easy,’ and it really was.
It was an instant connection.
Those two just dove into those characters [and] protected each other.”
That closeness extended off screen, too.
“He convinced me, and he convinced Marwan,” she says.
“That’s how invested they were in the relationship, so it was really beautiful to see.
Their friendship that you see on screen is absolutely real.”
“I loved that they are warriors,” Prince-Bythewood says.
Even for an old action pro like Theron,The Old Guardpresented a few new challenges.
Since then, she’s occasionally ridden for roles but never fully confronted her anxieties.
“For some reason on this film, I decided to finally address that fear,” she explains.
I want my children to be around horses.
So it was like a metaphor for my life in a weird way, this movie.
It was therapeutic for me."
After all, even experts can learn new things, whether they’re Oscar winners or 6,000-year-old warriors.
Photographs by Charlize Theron / Additional Photography by Adir Abergel.Additional post-production by Scheme MachineandGood Company.
Styling: Leslie Fremar/The Wall Group; Hair: Adir Abergel/A-Frame Agency; Makeup: Kate Lee/The Wall Group
