Jan18

Charlize Theron for W Magazine

Posted on Jan 18, 2012 in Editorial, Fashion

Slightly frightening, Uncanny Valley Charlize graces the cover of W for the February issue:

Charlize Theron coves the February 2012 issue of W magazine photographed by Mario Sorrenti and styled by Edward Enninful. Bottega Veneta’s silk chiffon gown. Martin Katz 18k white gold and diamond earrings.

We just saw her in HD on our TV screen being polite to Ryan Seacrest a couple days ago and the lady is absolutely stunning under any conditions. We don’t normally get into the whole Photoshop discussion because it’s so ubiquitous you might as well yell at clouds. But this is someone who’s naturally better looking than almost anyone else on the planet and if the magazine felt that SHE needed digital enhancing, what the hell does THAT say about them? People have pores, W Mag; even really beautiful people. Their eyes and noses have shadows, and stray hairs are known to show themselves on their heads. None of these things make them less beautiful. We’d love to see the unretouched version of that picture because we’d bet a million dollars she looks amazing in it.

Inside, we see a slightly more natural-looking (as far as you can use that term in regards to a fashion mag editorial) Charlize, demonstrating that she’s gorgeous and can work the shit out of both an outfit and a camera.

Marchesa dress. Gilan ring; Harry Winston bracelet.

Dior dress; Fleur of England bra and briefs. Harry Winston bracelet; Bulgari ring.

Oscar de la Renta gown. Harry Winston bracelet; Gilan ring; Gucci shoes.

[Photo Credit: Mario Sorrenti for wmagazine.com]

Anonymous

The photo in Marchesa…STUNNING.
Anonymous

I would NEVER have recognized that cover shot without the all-caps name to the left of her face. Wow.

http://twitter.com/foodycatAlicia foodycatAlicia

I can’t think who it looks like, but it certainly isn’t Charlize! If you are photoshopping someone up the yingyang, why would you make her nostrils lopsided? Which sounds really petty, but they do dominate that cover pic.

P M

Now that you’ve pointed it out, that’s all I can see.
Anonymous

80′s Michelle Pfeiffer? I can’t quite place it either.

King Dex

Marg Helgenberger?!

Anonymous

YES! That’s it!
http://twitter.com/foodycatAlicia foodycatAlicia

YES! From the China Beach years.
Anonymous

I saw Marg Helgenberger on TV last night. She doesn’t look like Marg Helgenberger any more.

Anonymous

That’s exactly what I thought and it makes me want to re-watch Married to the Mob! Hysterical!

Anonymous

And thus the problem with Photoshopping or cosmetic procedures for actors and celebrities. When you remove the flaws, you shift from “unique” to “generic” or “unrecognizable.” But kudos on that 2nd shot in the Marchesa. She looks like herself, and its effin fierce.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YOSAO4E67OHWMT6TTZ4AOT7GLE Angela

Naomi Watts is what I thought.

Anonymous

Geez, her neck is sooo long in that last pic. I hate her.
http://joyouslifesf.wordpress.com Kiltdntiltd

Wow, the cover takes the notion of predatory female to a whole new level.
Judy_J

If they feel the need to photoshop Charlize, what does that say about the rest of us mere mortals?
Mariah J

Completely agree. She is fantastic. This is why I hate airbrushing and autotune, you lose something in translation between raw beauty, talent etc and the final artificial product.
Anonymous

Photoshopping aside, this photo spread is lights years more interesting and sexy than Rihanna’s.
MilaXX

Very pretty and I would love to see that makeup with the assistance of photoshop.
Anonymous

She looks like anyone but herself. Still beautiful. But sad.
Anonymous

She’s ridiculous, isn’t she? I would totally switch teams for her.
Anonymous

And if they’re going to Photoshop the hell out of her on the cover, at least edit out the nip.

Anonymous

I’d wager they “edited” that in….no accident

http://profiles.google.com/shannonlstewart Shannon Stewart

What’s really funny is that not only is she more beautiful than almost anyone on the planet, but her face is the closest to mathematical perfection of anyone measured ever — essentially, there’s a math formula that dictates what is pleasing to the eye (symmetry is a big factor). It explains why Amanda Siefried’s large eyes are appealing and Steve Buscemi’s are creepy, micrometers count:)

http://twitter.com/starrika Ali

Me too – I’m very fair and tend to look like I have a very round moon face in pictures, because shadows don’t show up as much off my skin.

Anonymous

In my school ID picture, you can only see my near black hair and dark eyebrows. The guy wanted to retake it, but I chose to keep it because it depicted my ghostliness nicely.

http://twitter.com/starrika Ali

Same here – you can barely make out my face in the school ID photo. They retook it twice – I told them it was as good as it was going to get, haha. I tell myself this means my wrinkles won’t show up later as much. It’s somewhat of a cold comfort.

Anonymous

I thought…oh hell, I’m blanking on her name. The British supermodel with the mole had one of those mathematically perfect faces too?

That’s what some documentary with John Cleese told me anyway.

http://twitter.com/starrika Ali

Brad Pitt, too I think.

http://www.celestiae.net Isy

Correction: more beautiful than anyone in Hollywood. Until we take a stock of the other 7+billion people on the planet…
Basil Von Broccoli

And yet, in that cover photo her nostrils and mouth are going in a completely different direction from the rest of her face… she would probably be making some sort of expression, if they hadn’t erased all that sort of thing in Photoshop.

Anonymous

Charlize doesn’t always look like herself here, though I did recognize her on the cover. But one of the things that fascinates about this woman is her ability to be a chameleon. She can look quite plain and dowdy for a role if she needs to, and can also pull out all her glamour to be one of Hollywood’s most beautiful women.
Anonymous

I would LOVE it if Marchesa contracted her to be their spokesmodel because I didn’t even notice the dress with her spectacular smizing. Literally took my breath away.
Anonymous

If she’s taking the Winslet route to bitchtown, so help me, I’m going to break whoever convinced both of them to do so.
Anonymous

I find it funny that they credit a Bulgari ring in the 2nd inside pic, when you can’t even see it!

I love the play of the shadows around her neck and collarbone in the last shot. Very sexy.
Anonymous

I saw Young Adult recently (which was a mostly unpleasant experience), and with almost no makeup, messy hair, grungy clothes, she was still a stunning woman. This is so unnecessary.
Anonymous

The cover doesn’t look like her at all. They did a real disservice to her lovely face. Odd. Gorgeous spread, though. The lady can really bring it when she wants to.
Anonymous

i’m not a hater. i am truly not. but i never got this lady. she is a low-rent michelle pfeiffer. not that i wouldn’t kill to be a low-rent michelle pfieffer. i’m just sayin’.
Anonymous

She looks like Amber Valetta on the cover.
Anonymous

She does take a beautiful photograph, doesn’t she? Wow. Although, in that last photo, her neck looks like it belongs on a female Stretch Armstrong doll.
Victoria Sharoyan

Wow, that cover is so off. She looks more like Elisha Cuthbert!
Anonymous

I like this. She looks like she’s maybe not stoned for a change.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1043171034 Tadiana Walton Jones

Is it just me, or is her leg really oddly Photoshopped in the last picture?

Add me to the chorus of people who’d love to see the unretouched versions of these photos. But in any case, she looks so striking. Wish I had a face and body just a little bit more like hers (i.e., still look like me, only way sexier).

Anonymous

I think it’s a combination of thin legs and the shadow cast by the table.
Anonymous

I don’t think it’s the shadow, I think they photoshopped her leg to her waist!

Anonymous

I love her and adore her Dior Perfume ads (although girl and ad producers needs to learn that it is Dior with an r at the end and not the trash thing she does with it under their crap supervision). She’s an interesting actress and one of the very few whom I’ve not gotten tired of seeing doing pretend model but WTF did they do to her neck in photo number 3? Santa Maria Mae de Deus! What in hell is that?
Anonymous

Horrible cover. She is absolutely beautiful and they managed to make her look fake and generic. Shame.
Anonymous

Love her, love the photos, except the one where she’s playing a corpse wearing Dior. Agree 100%, TLo, with your sentiments about photoshopping her.
Anonymous

She looks like a department store mannequin on the cover, with just as much personality.
Anonymous

I’ve seen her in person, and she is certainly very beautiful, but she’s got the natural talent of making the camera love her. She’s actually better looking on camera than off. Side-by-side, I wouldn’t look twice at her compared to Cate Blanchett, for example, or even Jennifer Garner, both of whom positively glow.

These are beautiful photos, but do they work in terms of selling the clothes? She’s the focal point; the clothes are a secondary or even tertiary concern.
Anonymous

That cover shot looks SO odd. Like one of those programs where they combine two faces…they used Nicole Kidman and Marg Helgenberger, methinks.

Anonymous

Nicely put–and so true!

http://heartprintandstyle.blogspot.com Vivi N

Charlize is a beautiful woman but I didn’t care much for these photos.
Anonymous

The pictures are beautiful, but I’m sick to death of that dead girl pose in the second one.

Anonymous

I’m also sick of the “ecstasy/rapture” pose in the following one. DOES EVERYONE have to hit that old number?

Anonymous

I think Madame Tussaud’s could have made a better wax mannequin of Charlize than that cover photo. Which is so creepy and unreal that it’s freaking me out.

And OK, photo shoot creative directors and fashion mag eds: Do you think you could possibly come up with some new ways to photograph women, instead of always relying on the lingerie-clad-woman-on-her-back-on-bed/floor and the clutching-chest-with-head-thrown-back-in-ecstasy/longing/whatthefuckever? Which have been old and stale for 40 or so years now? I mean, aren’t you supposed to be “creative?”

Anonymous

You said it!

Anonymous

Contrived, overwrought and not honest. C- Who is that bitch and what did she do w/ my fave lipstick lesbo?
Lexie

The idea that KStew is supposed to be more beautiful than her in that Snow White movie is BEYOND laughable. She is stunning in every single one of these.

Anonymous

I have the exact same problem with the Snow White movie.

Wrenaria

Sooooo beautiful.
Anonymous

You just know she got those shots right in the first, like, ten frames.
Anonymous

The cover looks like Marg Hellenberger. Which is really not a good thing when it’s really Charlize Theron.
Anonymous

Love it all. High glamour WERQ.
Anonymous

Anyone else see her on Top Chef this week. She wore two dresses. The first was the a dowdy, badly fitting dress that bunched in the front. At first I thought she was wearing an apron. An ugly apron.
Anonymous

Artists have been idealizing their muses and clients since antiquity. Do we think all Greeks were perpetually youthful and nekkid on the street? Photoshopping….LET IT GO Kittens.
Anonymous

What I love about her is her baseline pragmatism, coupled with total groundedness and confidence. She is willing to be supermodel-y, because she can do it really well, and does not apologize for it. She loves fashion and it loves her, so why not WERQ it? But she’s also clearly willing to be seen as unglamourous and unattractive — she’s not terrified of being unsexy for a minute like SO MANY other female celebrities so sadly are. “Monster” is an obvious example, but I also love what she does in “Young Adult” too: The character uses her exterior like infallible armor (ie “How could you not want me??”) but the actress knows that it’s all facade, and shows it is. Her pitiful underwear scene(s) reminds me of Meryl’s no-makeup scene in “Devil Wears Prada” – it’s all about vulnerability, and exposing the nakedness. That’s brilliant, it’s brave, and it tells me how serious she is about art, rather than just cruising along on celebrity, which would be easy and lucrative. Plus, she seems cool as hell: smart, funny, and up for a good time. Just a really together chick. … who happens to be one of the best-looking people ever made.

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Charlize Theron for W Magazine

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