Turning Charlize into Andromache.
Looking for someone to play Andy, the producers all agreed that Charlize Theron must be on top of their list.
“There are very few women in our industry who can play and act a hero like Andy and be believable in that role,” says director Gina in a statement. “Charlize is at the top of her game. She wants each scene to be great, and she won’t stop until it is. That spilled over to the rest of the cast. I’m very excited for people to see what she has created.”
And the feeling seemed mutual. According to Charlize, what really made her excited to get onboard was the world wherein the comic book film operates. “I really love this juxtaposition of big sci-fi but intimate emotion. There was something grounded in the characters, not just Andy but all of the characters. I really, really loved the relationship between Andy and Nile.”
Asked about doing the action scenes, Charlize says that she is fortunate to be working with the best in the business.
“It is so creative because you really are creating something that’s constantly evolving and changing,” says Charlize. “And up until the day that we’re actually shooting it, there were scenes where we ended up on locations or on sets that kind of threw us off a little bit; or there would be a corner in a building that would get in the way. So you’re constantly kind of reevaluating, up until the moment that you’re actually shooting the scenes.”
Of course, the best action sequences of Andy are the ones where she wields her battle ax or labrys. This choice of weapon seen in the film went straight out of the comic book, designed by illustrator Leandro Fernandez.
According to Fernandez, when he and Rucka first talked about Andy using a labrys, he made the sketch of the character during the ancient times. And when he had to draw the weapon as something that Andy would use in the modern day, he approached it as a graphic artist crafting a logo.
“I try to keep things simple and remove them from unnecessary things. And I wanted to design it inside a grid like a brand– easy to be recognized and at the same time, easy to be done again.” The illustrator said.
“When I saw [the labrys in the film], I felt impressed. They could do whatever they want, and [yet they’d] done it as I had done it from the beginning,” he adds.
