Spotlight on Niki Caro

North Country director Niki Caro was interviewed before a live studio audience by the Guardian’s Sandra Hebron, alongside the star of her film (and new best mate) Charlize Theron. “[North Country] was a script that really shocked me, because it’s real and it’s recent,” says Caro of the gruelling dramatisation of America’s first major successful sexual discrimination lawsuit. “This case wasn’t settled until 1998. So, for somebody from NZ, which is socially pretty progressive, and who’s been fortunate enough to grow up as I have, it was a very good project to do.” Theron admitted to “secretly stalking” Caro: “I’d gone to see Whale Rider, like everybody else, and really fell in love with Niki through that film. And so I stalked her – I was trying to see what she was doing next … For me, we had instant chemistry. We started finishing each other’s sentences and I was just ecstatic to start with her. She was really the person who catapulted me into really wanting to do this.”