The Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron starred in The Old Guard, Netflix’s latest action movie that saw 72 million views on first week of release according to the company.
The movie follows Theron’s Andy and a group of mercenaries who are immortal as they welcome a new immortal, a U.S. Marine who died in combat, to their ranks.
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Beyond the Lights), the movie has been a huge hit — and Theron, 44, can’t quite believe it.
“It’s pretty nutty, right?” Theron recently told Variety, reacting to the number of people who have seen it. “It’s pretty crazy.”
But the huge success doesn’t mean she’s thinking about a sequel just yet, even though the ending of the film sets up an intriguing new storyline.
“We’re still pushing this one out,” she said. “Let’s have a little resting period, but just given the fact that all of us really want to do it, I’m sure when it’s the right time, we’ll start the conversation.”
The Old Guard also deals with some existential questions on what it really means to be alive, a theme Theron hinted at when she spoke to Hoda Kotb on the Today show days before the movie was released.
“We spent a lot of time developing this project and I spent a lot of time thinking about that question,” she responded after Kotb asked her about her views on immortality. “The conclusion that I have come up with is that I think immortality comes with a lot of pain and loneliness and suffering, and I think the film really explores that.”
“You see — especially through two characters, one of them being my character — just a loneliness of walking this earth and having to lose the people that you love over and over and over again,” Theron continued. “And the frustration of seeing the world not really changing.”
“I think what makes life matter is death,” Theron told Kotb. “[It’s] knowing that we have to appreciate every second because it could all be gone tomorrow.”
The Old Guard is available to stream on Netflix.
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