Charlize Theron's Dedication In Fast X 'Terrified' The Film's Director

There are really only two ways to become a successful action star. You can either come up through the ranks of the stunt world and hone your acting chops along the way, or start out as an actor first and mold yourself into a formidable fighter that's believable onscreen. Charlize Theron has done the latter, going from ingénue roles like "2 Days in the Valley" to an award-winning performance in "Monster" to instantly iconic action roles in "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Atomic Blonde." Theron has clearly caught the bug for close combat brawls and complex fight choreography, and with the sequels "The Old Guard 2" and "Atomic Blonde 2" on the way, audiences are going to be watching her kicking, punching, and shooting her way through Hollywood for the foreseeable future. 

Theron could probably go toe-to-toe with Keanu Reeves at this point, which is why it seemed a little peculiar when her character Cipher was introduced in "The Fate of the Furious" and then immediately sidelined as soon as the action started revving up. When she returned in "F9," she was still relegated to looking cool behind giant monitor screens where she was too busy orchestrating the action instead of getting in on the fun. With "Fast X" now in theaters, Cheron and director Louis Leterrier were determined to not make the mistake for a third time. 

In the latest high octane entry in the ongoing franchise, Cipher gets to come out of the cyber-terrorist basement to throw down with Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) in a brutal one-on-one fight and take on a group of some of her former agents, now led by one of the all-time "Fast and Furious" villains, Dante Reyes (Jason Mamoa). But when Leterrier came on set for the first time, he wasn't expecting to see the almost dangerous level of dedication from Theron. 

Sometimes, as a director, you have to trust that when you're working with one of the best action stars in the world, and they probably know their own limits at this point. Leterrier had never seen Theron up close and personal when he first stepped on set, just as Theron was filming a brutal group fight scene with the second unit director. The filmmaker admitted he was worried, telling The Hollywood Reporter: 

"When I arrived on set, Charlize was shooting Cipher's fight against her own men, and I was terrified. I was like, 'I've done a few action movies, but I've never seen an actor give themselves fully to a scene like that.' Oh my God, I literally had to talk to the second unit director and ask, 'Are we doing too much? Are we pushing her?' And he said, 'No, it's her.'"

With the fight scenes she's a part of in "Fast X," Theron looks absolutely thrilled to be let out of the box, allowed to run wild inside the overblown, high stakes action we've all come to expect out of this admittedly ridiculous franchise. If the long-rumored Cipher spinoff movie ever winds up happening, hopefully Theron will get the chance to take things to an entirely different level. Leterrier did say that Theron didn't get to do absolutely everything she wanted to do in "Fast X," leaving the door open for her to hopefully be fully unleashed in a future film. "She really wanted to do as much as possible, if not more," he said. "So we had to hold her back because she would have done everything if it were up to her."

"Fast X" is now playing in theaters worldwide.