Charlize Theron Is a ‘Rare Commodity in Hollywood,’ Henry Golding Says: ‘Female Counterpart to a Tom Cruise’ (Exclusive)

Hazel Willow5 hours agoLast Updated: 29 June 2025

0 0 2 minutes read

NEED TO KNOW

Henry Golding compared his The Old Guard 2 costar Charlize Theron to Tom Cruise in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE
“You know what it is? She leads from the front. She’s like a rare commodity in Hollywood,” Golding also said of Theron
The Old Guard 2 premieres on Netflix on July 2

Henry Golding is praising his The Old Guard 2 costar Charlize Theron.

Golding, 38, compared Theron, 49, to fellow movie star Tom Cruise, 62, in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE at the premiere of The Old Guard 2 at Netflix’s Tudum Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 25.

“You know what it is? She leads from the front. She’s like a rare commodity in Hollywood,” says the Snake Eyes and Crazy Rich Asians star. “She is the female counterpart to a Tom Cruise. She’s the producer. She’s on set first thing in the morning, last at night, and she’s creating what she wants and she’s in there with the action. She’s in there with the choreography,”

“She and Tom Cruise are some of the last of the movie stars,” he adds.

Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron, 57th Annual Golden Globe Awards, January 23, 2000

Theron’s acclaimed acting career, which began in the 1990s and accelerated quickly in the early 2000s, includes three Best Actress nominations at the Academy Awards for 2003’s Monster, 2005’s North Country and 2019’s Bombshell. She won the Oscar for Monster.

In 2016, Theron made Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list.