Charlize Theron Shared Her Secret Tearjerker Movie: “Yeah I’m a Bit of a Sap For Sure”
Charlize Theron is not someone who cries easily, but there is one movie that managed to get to her. In a recent interview with fans, she was asked, “What was the last movie that made you cry?” Theron answered, “It’s all hard for me to cry. I mean, I cry from laughter. The last film that I saw that did that to me was 50/50.”
50/50, released in 2011, is a comedy-drama directed by Jonathan Levine. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young man named Adam who discovers he has cancer.
With the support of his friends and loved ones, Adam fights through treatment while trying to keep his life as normal as possible. The film was written by Will Reiser and inspired by his own experience with cancer, with Gordon-Levitt’s character based on Reiser himself.
When it came out, the movie was praised by both critics and audiences for handling such a difficult topic in a funny but heartfelt way. It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 2012 Critics Choice Awards and earned nominations at the Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor for Gordon-Levitt.
On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 93% rating based on 200 critic reviews, with an average score of 7.7 out of 10. The consensus reads, “A good-hearted film about a difficult topic, 50/50 maneuvers between jokes and drama with surprising finesse.”
Theron explained why she loves movies like this. “I love movies that can kind of like catch you off-guard, and you’re emotionally crying and then they just kind of sucker punch you and you’re like snotty laughing crying. I love those cries. Those are my favourite cries like, but yeah I’m a bit of a sap for sure, I’d be the first one to admit it,” she said.
The story of Adam’s life in the movie is both emotional and funny. Mild-mannered and only 27 years old, Adam works as a public radio journalist in Seattle. When he is diagnosed with a rare spinal cancer, he faces chemotherapy, fear, and difficult decisions about who will care for him.
His loyal but immature best friend Kyle, his girlfriend Rachael, and his family all play important roles in helping him navigate his illness, making the movie deeply touching.
Even Seth Rogen, who played Kyle, admitted the movie’s emotional weight made it too much for some viewers. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said he expected it wouldn’t get an Academy Award nomination because some people “have very, very personal connections to the subject matter and just can’t emotionally disconnect from their own experience. I respect that. But what we found for the most part is that people like to laugh at tragedy. It makes them feel better.”
For Theron, 50/50 is the perfect mix of humor and heartbreak, a movie that catches you by surprise and makes you feel everything at once.
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