Anti-type Theron banks on Monster

Charlize Theron is banking on being virtually unrecognisable in her new film, Monster, to get her away from being typecast as the beautiful girlfriend and catapult her into the A-list of Hollywood actresses who can pick and choose their projects.

“You know when you play Scrabble and you have the chance to take the pieces, shake them up and start all over again from scratch? That’s what I’ve been dying to do with my career,” she tells VLife magazine.

“The work that I’ve been doing the past couple of years has not really been what I wanted. If you’re not careful you get typecast. I was getting stuck.”

In Monster, which she is also producing, Theron plays Aileen Wuornos, a real-life lesbian-hooker-turned-serial killer who was abused as a child, murdered six men and was executed by lethal injection in a Florida prison last year.

For the role, Theron chopped and darkened her blond hair, made her blue eyes brown and gained 30lbs.

“This is by far the most challenging work I have ever done,” she said.