South African actress Charlize Theron criticized the death penalty after the international premiere of Patty Jenkin's Monster on Sunday, February 9. The film is included in the official selection for the Golden Bear at the 54th Berlinale. Theron who has won a best actress award at the Golden Globes and nominated for an Academy Award for best actress, plays Aileen Wuornos, a homeless prostitute who killed seven men who paid her for sexual services. Wuornos claims the first murder was in self defense and sparked off a series of killings and was sent to the electric chair last year.

"I'm not for the death penalty and working on this film didn't really change anything for me," she admitted at the press conference for Monster."If anything it made me more aware of how ineffective it is."

"I don't think condemning people who murder and then killing them necessarily sends out the right message. And I have a huge problem with the way these people are used as political pawns", explained Theron in response to Wuornos' execution who was adopted by her legal counsel.

Critics feel that Monster is manipulative and condones violence, a story that shouldn't be told. Theron disagrees:
"I think her (Wuornos) entire life was just like water going down a drain. And it just kept going faster and faster. We forget that it's our job is to tell people stories. There's only so many pretty stories you can do."

The film's director, Patty Jenkins agreed:
"So rarely is there a story that lends itself so easily to looking at how a good person can be damaged to the extent that they cross the line and become a killer. It is a universal story that people are overlooked and left outside until they become capable of committing the same acts that have been done to them."


Moira Sullivan