Charlize Theron Knew This 2005 Dystopian Sci-Fi Movie Would Be A Flop
by Witney Seibold · /FilmKaryn Kusama's 2005 sci-fi film "Æon Flux" is a clumsy, badly written post-apocalypse thriller about the titular badass resistance fighter (Charlize Theron) and her adventures in the year 2415. The film was based on a strange and highly acclaimed MTV animated series by Peter Chung, a series noted for its arch, expressionistic style, aggressive sexuality, and BDSM-inflected imagery. The movie, in being live-action, dispensed with a lot of the show's arch style, and focused instead on the story. Sadly, the story is confusing and bad.
"Æon Flux" takes place mostly in the city-state of Bregna, several centuries after a virus wiped out 99% of the planet's human population. In the 25th century, the remaining five million humans live in that park-like city where everything seems placid, but the government of Bregna is mysterious and totalitarian and regularly kidnaps its own citizens. Æon Flux is from the city of Monica, which aims to tear down Bregna. She has psychic communication powers and other enhanced body parts, enabled by techno-widgets inserted into her person. The plot of the movie, if you can follow it, is about Æon's efforts to assassinate the Bregnan leader (Marton Csokas), and how a mysterious third organization has been manipulating both Bregna and the Monicans. Johnny Lee Miller, Francis McDormand, Peter Postelthwaite, and Sophie Okonedo also appear. Theron was nearly paralyzed during production.
"Æon Flux" cost $62 million to make, and only earned $52.3 million at the box office. It was panned by critics, and angered fans of the animated series. In a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Theron admitted that "Æon Flux" was a mistake, knowing right from the jump that the film would flop. In that situation, she said, you just have to fight through "to the bitter end."
Æon Flux æon sucks
The interviewer was intensely interested in Charlize Theron's career arc in the early 2000s. Notably, they wanted to know about her turn in the 2003 drama "Monster," in which Theron played real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos. The actress was unrecognizable in the part, and received an Oscar for her performance. In 2005, she starred in another awards-bait drama in the form of Niki Caro's "North Country," but also made her attempt at a blockbuster with "Æon Flux." That same year, she also had a celebrated five-episode run on the hit Fox sitcom "Arrested Development," playing a woman with an intellectual disability.
Theron said that she had two reasons for agreeing to appear on "Arrested Development." The first was that she was tired of being approached with heady, depressing dramas like "Monster" and "North Country," and wanted to prove that she could be seen as a comedic actress. The other was because she wanted to appear in something popular because, well, she knew "Æon Flux" was going to tank. In her words:
"It was one of the scariest things, to walk onto a set of a show that's so developed and so brilliant. But I think I needed that, to put myself out there in a different way, because people thought of me as someone who was f***ing depressing [...] And I just f***ing loved that show. And this is going to sound so 'poor me,' but I do feel like sometimes, as women, we get one shot and I knew that 'Æon Flux' was going to be a f***ing flop. I knew it from the beginning. That's why I did 'Arrested Development.'"
Of course, Theron was right. "Æon Flux" did f***ing flop.
Charlize Theron saw Æon Flux was a disaster, but just had to ride it out
I recall from personal experience that Paramount chose not to screen "Æon Flux" for the press. That's never a good sign.
The Hollywood Reporter asked Charlize Theron what an actor's course of action was when faced with the knowledge that their film is 100% going to bomb. Theron said that, at the time, she just had to ride the whirlwind. She didn't have the wherewithal (or the producer's credit) to take control of the movie and tinker with it. Her exact words were:
"With that one, I don't know if I had the answers for how to [fix it], but I definitely knew we were in trouble. I wasn't a producer on it, and I didn't really have the experience to say what I believe Tom Cruise has maybe said for the past 20 years, which is: 'Shut this s*** down, get four more writers on it, and let's figure this out.' Instead, I'm going, 'Oh God, I've just got to get through this day, I have bronchitis, but let's keep shooting.' Now I imagine all these male actors going, 'Shut it down for six months!' And it's like, f***, no one told me that was an option."
It's possible that if she had had the agency to assert control over "Æon Flux," Theron might have turned it into a good movie. Sadly, that can only be conjecture. And we have to face the fact that the 2005 movie wasn't good in the slightest. These days, one can still go to record stores and video game outlets and see piles of re-sold "Æon Flux" DVDs in the dollar bin, and it sounds like even Charlize Theron would agree that's where it belongs.