Charlize Theron Has Your New Self-Confidence Mantra

By Nate Jones

February 26, 2016

Are you one of those people whose neurotic need for self-deprecation keeps you from accepting praise wholeheartedly? If so, follow the example of Mad Max: Fury Roadcostume designer Jenny Beavan, who tellsVanity Fair how Charlize Theron knocked some self-confidence into her with just four magic words. "When Charlize [Theron] came for her fitting in Namibia, she put [her costume] on and said, 'This feels really great,'" Beavan recalls. "I went all sort of English and coy and said, 'Oh well, you know, we’ve been trying to make it…' And she just said, 'Take the compliment, bitch.' ... She’s just very straight talking, and I just loved it, so I’ve been taking the compliment, bitch, ever since." New words to live by! Your friend likes your haircut? Take the compliment, bitch. Your boss praises something you worked really hard on? Take the compliment, bitch. A man catcalls you on the street? Okay, that's something you do not need to take as a compliment. But still, most of the time: Take the compliment, bitch.

VULTURE

Oscars 2016/ The Men of the Oscars humiliate a brilliant woman

Jenny Beavan

The Men of the Oscars humiliate 

a brilliant woman: Mallick

The treatment of British costume designer Jenny Beavan as she won her Oscar for Mad Max: Fury Road was profoundly awful

By Heather Mallick

Published on Wed Mar 02 2016

I don’t watch the Oscars. They’re cheesy yet pompous, tacky yet money-larded, and particularly brutal for women, both those nominated and those watching. So there’s that.

But the ceremony outdid itself this year. As with human beings — the ones who don’t tip the pizza delivery man or who underpay the nanny — it’s the small moments that are most revelatory about one’s character.

The treatment of British costume designer Jenny Beavan as she won her Oscar for Mad Max: Fury Road was profoundly awful. A series of men in the seats lining the long walk to the stage — important men are always given easy access — stared at her with open loathing, refusing to applaud.

Spotlight director Tom McCarthy, 49, openly laughed at her. Best Director (The Revenant) Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 52, drew his eyes up and down her entire body, looked repelled and kept his arms crossed. Steve Golin, 60, a rich man, producer of The Revenant and Spotlight, studied her and remained frozen.

Beavan is 66, heavy-set, with frizzy hair and little makeup, if any. In a Mad Max tribute, she wore leather jeans, a leather jacket with jewelled skull on the back, heavy scarf, and chunky jewelry. She looked brassy and cool, in other words a person who has worked on the signals, purpose and esthetics of film costuming for decades. Clothing sends out a declaration: hers said, “I’m the real thing. I design. I am not to be consumed.”

Oscar 2016 / Stuffy Oscars Dudes Can’t Handle Mad Max Costume Designer’s Awesomeness

Jenny Beaven
Los Angeles, February 29, 2016

OSCARS 2016

Stuffy Oscars Dudes Can’t Handle Mad Max Costume Designer’s Awesomeness

by Nate Jones

February 28, 201611:28 p.m.

Before she won an Oscar for designing the costumes in Mad Max: Fury Road, Jenny Beavan learned a powerful lesson on confidence from Charlize Theron, which is maybe what inspired her to arrive at the ceremony rocking pants and a leather jacket. In real life, that's a very normal outfit; at the Oscars, it's practically sacrilege — a point the bigwigs in attendance helpfully underlined by reacting like prudish Victorian schoolmarms. Look at that guy's eyebrows! I've seen subtler reactions from a cartoon wolf.