Charlize Theron relished the chance to "unleash the beast" in ‘Fast & Furious 8’.
The 41-year-old actress portrays high-tech terrorist Cipher in the latest instalment of the action franchise and was delighted to play a villain that wasn’t just a "femme fatale".
She said: "Usually when the villain is a woman, she’s a femme fatale, which makes it sound more seductive and sexier. She’s showing a little leg and she uses her sexuality.
"But Cipher is a flat-out psychopath serial killer. She does unspeakable acts.
"There is no empathy whatsoever. She is twisted and sociopathic and psychopathic. They have me total freedom to unleash the beast and go wild."
However, the blonde beauty can’t believe the franchise has never had a female villain before.
She said: "To be the first woman villain was a huge privilege but also quite unbelievable. I mean, really, the first?
"Women make the best villains, hands down. I’m sorry but they do, so there should have been another long before me.
"Women are just better. They have so many more possibilities at their disposal. They can mystify and conspire, and they’re more complex so they’re harder to read.
"I’m totally biased but it’s true. I literally couldn’t wait to get on set every morning."
For Charlize – who has two children, Jackson, six, and August, 20 months – the most important thing when it comes to choosing her movie roles is an all-consuming excitement about the character.
She told Britain’s HELLO! magazine: "It’s all about the character, it has to be for me.
"Especially when I have kids and family, I have to be really interested and invested to want to dedicate time away from my life.
"I have to be so excited. I have to not be able to go to sleep.
"I want to dream about it, I want to daydream about it, I want my stomach to be in knots. If it’s not, I don’t want to do it."
Charlize Theron ‘unleashes the beast’
