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Charlize Theron Had the Best Reaction When Told That Girlboss Had "Too Many Girls" in It

Plus, find out what it's really like working for the Oscar winner

By Marc Malkin Apr 19, 2017 12:00 PMTags
Watch: Charlize Theron on Sexism in Hollywood & Making "Girlboss"

Charlize Theron gets what she wants.

When the Oscar winner was pitching Girlboss around Hollywood, some execs had a problem wrapping their heads around the female-centric series.

"One person said to us, 'There are too many girls in this,'" Theron told me with a big laugh. "I was like, 'And your problem is?'"

Girlboss, which premieres on Netflix on Friday, is based on Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso's memoir of the same name. Amoruso launched Nasty Gal Vintage, an online vintage clothing store, when she was just 22. Now 32, she's reportedly worth $280 million.

Theron optioned the book and is the series' executive producer.

Watch: What's It Like Working for Charlize Theron?

"I never take for granted the fact that at my age I'm at a place where I have the ability to say no, that I don't have to do something that doesn't feel authentic and doesn't feel right and real," she said. "And this show to me really lived and breathed [that]. It had to be authentic. So if we couldn't do that I didn't want to do it. And it was nice to have a bunch of girls around me that supported that and we stood strong. Today, we have the show that we really wanted to make."

Series creator Kay Cannon also recalled that pitch meeting. "They said to us, 'You can't call it Girlboss and make it more for men,'" she said. "And I'm a people pleaser and I was like OK, and I'm starting to think of different ideas. Charlize was sitting next to me and she was like, 'No, we're going to tell the proper story.' And I remember looking at her and being like, oh, yeah, you can say no. You could fight for what you believe in."

Britt Robertson, who stars as Amoruso, gushed over Theron as their executive producer.

"She immediately gave me her email and her cellphone and she was like, 'Call me whenever,'" Robertson said. "I called her a couple of times because when I didn't call her she was like, 'Why didn't you call me?' and I'm like, 'Because you're important and you have other stuff going on.' And she was like, 'That's the only reason I'd give you my number. It's not like so we can hang out on the weekends.'"

LOL.