Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, and Charlize Theron in Sleepwalking Courtesy of Overture Films

That said, [Tara's father] almost becomes a palpable presence in the room at the dinner table when her grandfather starts talking about him.
Theron: The thing that breaks Tara is the unexpectedness of hearing somebody talk about her father, this faceless man. But with Nick [Stahl] it was a little trickier because he came so wounded to that scene that we needed to show how [his character James] has gone through this trauma, just like Tara. I kept saying to [Nick]: "This is your dad, no matter what he's done to you, you still want his approval." And when you look at the dialogue, the subtext is "Look at me, Dad. Be proud of me. Look at what I've accomplished." And that might be the thing that's going to fix everything. That will make it all OK. So that was a really — I mean for me it's a heartbreaking scene, because it's the [father's] denial that just kills me. I think we're always hoping that our parents will approve of us.

Your film roles are so diverse. As an actress, do you seek out that diversity on purpose?
No. I wish I could say that there's a recipe, but there really isn't. I'm very much driven by material but I'm also very much driven by who I'm going to work with. If I'm going to go and do something like Hancock [Theron's upcoming movie about a homeless superhero, co-starring Will Smith], a) I need to feel like the material is going to carry, b) I absolutely love working with Will Smith. I think he's a phenomenal talent. We worked together in The Legend of Bagger Vance, and so that felt like going back to family. And the material was really challenging for the two of us. But I don't really live in a genre-driven mindset. And I think things kind of come to me; it's really very organic because this industry is so unpredictable. I think it's naive and somewhat egotistical to think that you can control the box office and that you can control what people are going to like. Time after time I have seen movies whose buzz starts to hit and the industry decides this is the big one for this year. And then it comes out and nobody gives a damn. I think that's the magic of filmmaking. I've learned very early on that since you can't control what's going to happen at the box office, the one thing that you can control is doing things that you really want to do. Not because you think it's going to be a hit and not because you think you're going to win an Academy Award. Boy, you're just going to live a life of disappointment. It's sometimes a little harsh when you work on something that you really believe in and it doesn't perform at the box office, but at the same time, you walk away with the satisfaction as an actor that you went and did something that you really wanted to do. That's the only thing you have control over at the end of the day. Michael Caine said this to me when I did Cider House Rules with him. He said, "I have at least 10 memories of every single one of the movies [I've made]. And when I'm on my death bed, I will remember those moments and I won't be able to tell you what any one of my movies made at the box office." And then you start to realize that life is important, and that you're going to go and dedicate yourself to 2 years onto a project, you better have some good memories. You better enjoy it.

One thing that I really appreciate about this role is Joleen's humanity. It is reminiscent of some of the other characters you've played.
Well, the human condition, especially as a female, is what interests me. I think female characters can be very black and white. And there's not a lot of room for the gray area, and I think that's problematic within our society. We want to believe that our women are nurturers. It's the Madonna-whore complex: we either want to see our women playing mothers, girlfriends, pretty wives, or we want to see them play prostitutes. I think women are the most complex human creatures and yet men get to play all those complex, conflicted roles. Directors and men's studios are sometimes concerned that if you play a female like that, the audience isn't going to like it. But you know what? Some people aren't necessarily likeable but if you play them truthfully, the best you can hope for is not sympathy but empathy and understanding. And if you're willing to show the pretty with the ugly, well that's a human being. That's all of us.