HOLLYWOOD - "North Country," opening Oct. 21, stars Charlize Theron as Josey Aimes. The character is a composite of several female miners who were part of a successful class-action sexual-harassment suit filed against Eveleth Mines in northern Minnesota in 1988.
Theron may not seem an obvious choice to play a miner, but the actress defends her blue-collar casting. "I'm physically strong," she said. "I'm not scared of manual labor. I'm a farm girl at heart. I've got broad shoulders. I think I could handle a job like that."
Woody Harrelson, who plays the lawyer who files the suit, said, "When you watch the film you never doubt for a second what Charlize is doing. It's totally legitimate."
Their director, Niki Caro, rolls her eyes when the subject of Theron's beauty comes up. "Charlize and I never discussed it," she said. "We were entirely concerned with the insides of her character. There is a charming myth that every beautiful woman gets out of every small town and goes to Hollywood. That's farcical. Beautiful girls in small towns are the ones that get trapped first. They get married first and have children first.
"Charlize doesn't look unusual in Minnesota. That part of America was settled by unskilled labor from Northern Europe, Italy and Slovenia. You see Charlize types - willowy blonds with beautiful skin."
Disturbing moments occur regularly in "North Country." The most terrifying is set at the top of a gigantic conveyor belt rising 100 feet over the face of the iron-ore mine.
At the encouragement of her male supervisor, Aimes walks up the shutdown belt to get a full view of the mine in action. But when she gets to the top, she discovers the man is right behind her and about to assault her sexually. To frighten her further, he has arranged for the belt to start moving again.
"That happened to me," said Diane Hodge, who worked as a laborer at Eveleth Mines for 25 years and was one of the plaintiffs in the suit. She was a consultant on the movie.
Hodge recalls another incident not shown in the film. "I had fallen asleep in the lunch room on my break," she said, "and that same guy got down on his hands and knees and put his head between my legs, pretending he was performing oral sex. Two other men just sat there and let him do it.
"That was the day I realized I was on my own. When I turned him in, management tried to fire me. They followed me and haunted me. But nothing ever happened to him. He got a retirement party."
Hodge, who plays herself in a key union hall scene, was impressed with Theron's performance. "I think Charlize did us justice," she said. "She was very emotional, and she was right on."
Theron and Caro became acquainted two years ago when they were on the same promotion circuit with Caro's "Whale Rider" and Theron's "Monster." Theron won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Among her fellow nominees was "Whale Rider's" Keisha Castle-Hughes.
"I cast Charlize because of what I saw her do in `Monster,'" Caro said. "I felt the preoccupation with her weight gain and loss was insulting when the work she was doing as an actor was so stunning.
"I'm impressed by Charlize's strength of character, by how real and unaffected she is. She is a genuine star, but she sheds that so effortlessly. She's a great character actor. Her Oscar was very validating, and it validated her for the right role and the right reason."
Theron said she wanted to play Josey "because thanks to women like her, I get to work and live in a very safe environment. I respect women who come from harsher landscapes, where survival is much harder than in cities, because they don't wallow in self-pity. They have to survive, so they get up and move on."
