Charlize Theron Recalls Disturbing Early Audition with “Scumbag” Director

The Oscar winner opens up about a casting couch encounter, why she won’t name the man involved, and how she reclaimed her power.

Charlize Theron is shedding new light on a deeply unsettling moment from her early years in Hollywood—an incident involving a predatory director that continues to haunt her, though she refuses to name him.

In a recent appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, The Old Guard 2 star revisited the traumatic experience she first spoke about publicly in 2019 on The Howard Stern Show. At the time, Theron recalled arriving at a director’s house for what she was told was an audition—only to be greeted by him in pajamas. Things quickly turned inappropriate when he allegedly placed his hands on her knees. “I got up and left,” Theron said, emphasizing how lost she felt in the moment. “I didn’t know what the audition process looked like… [my agency] said there was a casting for this movie and you’ll have to go on a Saturday night. It was this director’s house.”

Even then, Theron said, a small voice inside her knew something was wrong—but as a newcomer to the industry, she doubted herself. “The little voice inside me definitely said, ‘This isn’t right.’ But then, the other voice in me says, ‘Well, I don’t know. Maybe it is right.’”

When asked why she still hasn’t named the director, Theron offered a powerful explanation: “It’s not because I’m protecting him. I just don’t want the story to be about him.” She added that the man eventually figured out she had been talking about him when the story gained traction. “He wrote me a pretend letter trying to explain his behavior and how I must have misunderstood it—which is classic, isn’t it?”

Theron didn’t hold back in her latest comments: “I won’t even f***ing say your name because you know you’re the scumbag. You know it’s you. If anybody ever asked me about him, I would be completely honest—and he knows that. I kind of like that he’s got to be on a hot seat. He doesn’t know when it’s going to come. I kind of like that a little more.”

Reflecting on the power imbalance, she added, “I was never going to get a part that night… I wasn’t there because I had some value that I was going to bring to his movie. I was only valued for one thing.”

Theron’s story is yet another reminder of the dangers women face in the entertainment industry—and a testament to the courage it takes to speak out.

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