When Charlize Theron asked Minnesotans their thoughts about portraying an Iron Ranger in “North Country,” they asked her to make sure the movie did two things: Tell the truth. Don’t overdo the accent.
“It’s the hardest accent I’ve ever had to do,” says Theron, a native of South Africa who has played Brits, New Yorkers, an Arkansan and a Swede in previous roles. “It usually takes me about three days to get an accent down, but this one took me two weeks.”
Theron did her homework before shooting the film, which opens Friday and is inspired by the true story of female taconite miners who filed a landmark sexual harassment suit against Eveleth Mines. She made a preliminary trip to the Iron Range to chat with natives. She listened to tapes of Iron Rangers. She even read “How to Talk Minnesotan.” But she didn’t feel like she had the accent right until she arrived there in February to shoot the film.
“You know what it was that finally made it click?” says Theron, who plays the woman who initiates the lawsuit. “Being in the cold. That’s when I started to understand why people talk the way they do.
“It’s like when you go to the South, you understand why people talk slowly, sitting in their rocking chairs in the heat. It happens that way up north too. In Minnesota, I stepped off that plane that first day, and I thought, ‘Oh, it’s cold. I get why people don’t open their mouths too wide and why the sound is a little nasal.’ “