Charlize Theron plays a Maker’s Mark-swilling, past-her-prime party girl who routinely wakes up in her clothes — or out of them, next to strange men — in the dark comedy “Young Adult.” But life did not imitate art Thursday at the movie’s Ziegfeld premiere: The stunning actress walked the red carpet in Dior, then soberly skipped the screening and her own after-party to get some beauty rest for an appearance on “Today” Friday.
Director Jason Reitman said it wasn’t Theron but co-star Patton Oswalt who inspired him to make the film. “[Patton] came over to my house for a reading [of the script], just as a favor, and he was so great as this character, I said, ‘We have to do this,’ ” Reitman recalled. Oswalt plays Theron’s unlikely sidekick, a bourbon-making “Star Wars”-obsessive still traumatized after being attacked by high school jocks years before. Screenwriter Diablo Cody said she never sees her movies with an audience because of nerves. “It’s my hang-up,” she told us at the Hudson Terrace after-party.