Charlize Theron Calls Netflix’s Apex One of Her Best On-Set Experiences as The Odyssey Nears Release

Before Charlize Theron charges into The Odyssey this summer, she is still buzzing about Apex, the survival thriller she shot for Netflix. She is not overselling it either. She calls the whole thing one of the best experiences of her career, and when you hear what they put themselves through, it tracks.

What Apex actually is, and why Charlize went all in

Apex is a hit survival-action film on Netflix from director Baltasar Kormakur. Theron plays a grieving rock climber on a brutal trek, and instead of faking it on a soundstage, she trained to make the climbing look and feel real. She worked with legendary climber Beth Rodden in the Australian wilds to get it right. If that name rings a bell, Rodden is the one behind elite ascents like the Meltdown crack in Yosemite.

'This was one of the best experiences that I have ever had,' Theron told Elle.

The vibe on set: more boot camp than cushy movie star gig

Theron says making Apex felt closer to a Marine boot camp than a typical action shoot. The location work was no joke, and she was into it. The weather, the terrain, the exhaustion — all of it helped strip away any fake movie energy and replace it with the real thing. She also loved working with Kormakur and a crew who, in her words, all had that itch to push harder. Get a bunch of those people in one place and you end up trying stuff most productions would never attempt.

How intense did it get? Here is the short version

• She says Apex demanded more from her physically than The Odyssey does, which is saying something.
• According to her chat with Elle, she handled about 98 percent of the climbing you see on screen herself.
• The finale includes her free soloing out of a gorge. Yes, actually climbing, not just face replacements and clever edits.
• On day two of filming, she jumped 30 feet off a cliff into roughly seven feet of water. That is as sketchy as it sounds.
• Getting to set meant a two-hour drive plus an hour-long hike, every day.
• Helicopters hauled in the heaviest equipment; the rest of the gear was carried up the mountains by hand.
• They had to reverse that whole trek every evening to clear the backcountry before sunset.

All of that adds up to why Theron ranks Apex so highly in her career. It is the kind of shoot that sounds miserable on paper and looks incredible on screen — the exact sweet spot for this kind of movie. If you want to see what that commitment buys you, Apex is streaming now on Netflix.