Charlize Theron: Tobey Maguire relationship was 'rough'

Sixteen years after starring in Oscar-winning drama The Cider House Rules, Charlize Theron is opening up about her turbulent on-set relationship with costar Tobey Maguire.

“Tobey and I had a bit of a rough time, yeah. I mean, we’re good now. It was a difficult movie,” she told James Franco for the cover of V Magazine‘s Summer Hollywood Issue. “Every day [on set was] completely different for a completely different reason. Whether it’s the weather, or the writing isn’t there, or you don’t get along with your castmate, you have to be able to go to something else that’s just as powerful.”

Theron goes on to say she’s since patched things up with Maguire, who played her love interest in the 1999 Lasse Hallström film, but the difficult experience gave her new perspective on how to tackle future roles. “It teaches you different things. It taught me that I could fall in love with somebody in my head while looking at someone else. We had some really intimate moments. Tobey and I didn’t feel that way about each other, so I had to figure something else out.”

Franco also asks Theron about her experience as an up-and-coming actress and model, with the Academy Award-winner detailing her audition for John Herzfeld’s 1996 crime film 2 Days in the Valley. The scene she read for involved her character being shot in the stomach, an act Theron brought to life using a bottle of ketchup. “I poured [it] on my stomach, then told the receptionist outside, ‘Look, it’s going to get a little loud,'” she said. “I barged through the door, getting ketchup on all the doors and the furniture… I think they were a little more concerned about my own sanity. Eventually they gave me the role. [Director John Herzfeld] said, ‘I knew you’d be up for anything.'”

Theron, who most recently starred in the 2015 Oscar juggernaut Mad Max: Fury Road, will next appear in the Cannes-bound drama The Last Face, directed by former boyfriend Sean Penn, in addition to The Huntsman: Winter’s War, which hits theaters April 22.

Check out more photos from Theron’s V Magazine issue, hitting newsstands May 5, below.