Charlize Theron has long been rumored to be a difficult person to get along with, both professionally and personally. The Old Guard actress has this reputation for several reasons, but the tabloids are definitely one of the biggest reasons Theron is believed by some to be “difficult.” Gossip Cop couldn’t help but wonder where the roots of this rumor came from, so we researched the actress and were surprised to discover how often Theron’s co-stars spoke on this very subject.
Charlize Theron’s Celebrity Feuds
Theron has been rumored to be involved in a number of celebrity feuds. Rumors emerged in 2014 that Tia Mowry had a bad run in with Theron while both women were working out at SoulCycle. In Touch claimed the Sister, Sister actress greeted Theron at the gym, who in turn rolled her eyes at the other actress. The rumors began gaining steam and soon DishNation was claiming that Theron was trying to get Mowry kicked out of SoulCycle because of their alleged interaction and because Mowry supposedly went public with them.
Mowry was the first to dismiss the rumors, telling E! News, “I do not know Charlize. I absolutely love her, she’s my ‘woman crush Wednesday,’ you can even see it on my Instagram! I’m obsessed with her, I love her, it was definitely blown out of proportion.” Theron remained silent about the accusations for years before eventually addressing the situation during a visit to Watch What Happens Live!. Host Andy Cohen questioned Theron about the rumors, which she of course denied. “I’m not an eye roller,” the Old Guard actress explained. “I’m really nice at SoulCycle, actually, because once my endorphins kick in I’m actually almost too friendly.” Obviously, that rumor was false.
Then there’s Theron’s famously frosty relationship with two of her male co-stars, Tobey McGuire and Tom Hardy. Theron has admitted that she didn’t get along very well with McGuire while filming The Cider House Rules. “Tobey and I had a bit of a rough time, yeah. I mean, we’re good now. It was a difficult movie,” Theron recalled during her V Magazine interview with James Franco.
Similarly, there was tension on set between Theron and Hardy during Mad Max: Fury Road. The film, both actors acknowledged, was incredibly difficult to film, with a large chunk of the filming forcing the principal actors to be stuck in a large truck together for long periods of time. The two have since made up and put the past behind them, but that’s not something that the tabloids seem capable of doing themselves. Even though most of the so-called “feuds” Charlize Theron has been involved in have either been completely overblown, like the alleged incident with Tia Mowry, or eventually fizzled out completely. The facts have never mattered much to the tabloids, however.
The Roles She Plays Are To Blame?
Charlize Theron apparently constantly runs into trouble over her reputation for being “difficult” to work with. Theron herself has acknowledged that some people find her “cold” in an interview with Variety. “I have heard people describe me as cold, or hard, or a bitch. You know what I mean?” the actress said. She also implied that the reason some people view her as such is because she “built a career” of playing characters that audiences “don’t like.”
While playing these controversial roles, Theron has often been targeted by the tabloids for her alleged behavior on set and with her co-stars. OK! reported that Theron was feuding with her The Fate Of The Furious co-star Vin Diesel. A source told the outlet that Theron “absolutely hated” working with Diesel. “He wasn’t friendly or even polite to Charlize,” the dubious insider explained. “He would tell her where to stand and how she should read lines… Charlize never wants to work with him again.” Gossip Cop determined that the rumors spread from a playful jab that neither actor really seemed to take seriously. Since there was no other evidence contained in the story, we determined the entire story was ultimately bogus.
Dissing Julia Roberts?
It’s not just co-stars that Theron supposedly rubbed the wrong way. While discussing her film Long Shot with the Sydney Morning Herald, Theron said about her decision to usually stay away from romantic comedies, “I just never saw myself as Julia Roberts, the rom-com person, and I didn’t see what I could bring to those roles anyway.” Woman’s Day Australia then reported that Theron’s “diss” was considered “rude and disrespectful” by Roberts. Gossip Cop wanted to nip this rumor in the bud, so we reached out to a source close to the situation who assured us the Pretty Woman star did not take offense. Clearly, Roberts was not at all upset by the “diss.”
After portraying former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in the film Bombshell, Theron was said to be feuding with the real life version of her conservative character. Kelly, according to Star, was furious that Theron refused to meet her before filming the movie. Gossip Cop checked in with our source close to the situation who assured us this story was completely made up. Kelly had no involvement in making the film and did not expect a face-to-face meeting with Theron.
Those weren’t the only rumors that sprung up about Theron about her time on the set of Bombshell. Life & Style claimed Charlize Theron was being “difficult” on set. “Charlize is never happy with the edits, clashes with the director and has the crew walking on eggshells around her,” insisted an insider who claimed to have knowledge of what went down. One problem: by the time this article was written, production had long wrapped on the film. The entire story was written in present tense as if everything was happening in the moment, but clearly that wasn’t the case. That wasn’t enough evidence, however, for Gossip Cop to come to a decisive conclusion, so we reached out to a source close to the situation. Our source dismissed the rumors as “not true.”
Attacks On Charlize Theron’s Dating Life
Every relationship Charlize Theron finds herself in, and some relationships that only exist in the pages of the tabloids, has been scrutinized to the nth degree. Even when Theron is not in a relationship, the tabloids are relentlessly pushing the false narrative that Theron struggles in her dating life. One tabloid, the eternally shameless OK!,even went so far as to claim earlier this year that Theron scared men who might be interested in dating the Oscar winner away.
“Guys are intimidated by her confidence and forthrightness,” an alleged insider remarked, “They shrink in her presence.” Gossip Cop didn’t believe this premise for a moment and, after looking through some then-recent interviews given by the actress, we determined she honestly wasn’t too worried about dating in general, much less worried that she was scaring guys off.
That article was a complete ripoff from another one of that same outlet’s past articles about Theron’s dating life. That article, from 2018, quoted a so-called “insider” who insisted that the lack of dates in Theron’s life was “getting her down.” “Everyone assumes men are lining up for her, but they’re often too intimidated to ask her out.” Once again, Theron’s own words on the subject were all Gossip Cop needed to dismiss the rumor.
The tabloids just couldn’t print enough stories about Theron’s faltering love life, which is why Gossip Cop combined every story we addressed about the Mad Max: Fury Road actress needing a “matchmaker” to find a man. What is it about single actresses that cause tabloids to utterly lose it and insist on partnering the poor woman up with whichever male celebrity is in close proximity?
Well, it’s not only male celebrities that allegedly need to watch out for Charlize Theron. There were a series of rumors about Theron and comedian Ellen DeGeneres supposedly preparing to have a “showdown” over DeGeneres’ wife, Portia de Rossi. While these rumors weren’t necessarily romantic in nature, the outlet insisted that DeGeneres was worried about Theron hanging around de Rossi on the set of the fifth season of Arrested Development.
A source informed the outlet that DeGeneres found Theron to be “controlling and brash,” while her wife de Rossi was supposedly “like putty and adapts to whomever she’s hanging out with.” Thus the talk show host feared that Theron’s “brash” demeanor would rub off on her more susceptible wife. Not only was this article dreadfully insulting to Theron, it was also quite demeaning toward de Rossi. Gossip Cop spoke with a mutual friend of DeGeneres’ and ours who laughed off the claims of this story.
Gossip Cop’s Take
Perhaps because Charlize Theron is a single woman in Hollywood who takes on roles that cast her in a fairly severe light, the rumors about her being “difficult” persist. Just because she doesn’t always get along with everyone doesn’t make Theron a difficult person. Even when she doesn’t get along with someone, especially a co-star, Theron never seems to badmouth them and it looks like she does patch things up with them eventually, though the tabloids are always silent about that fact.