Theron lightens up a little for 'Hancock'

NEW YORK -- She has been a serial killer, a crusading miner and a harried police detective. But a cinematic shrinking violet? Not so much.

So you might wonder how Oscar winner Charlize Theron wound up as glorified eye candy in Will Smith's Hancock.

But bear with her -- and her character, Mary -- and all will be illuminated.

"I think it's really nice when you're playing the female role in this kind of movie and people can't predict what she's going to be," Theron says. "People think of me as very serious, and there's an aspect of Mary that was that, but it was nice for (Smith) to trust me with the material."

Hancock, which opened Wednesday, stars Smith as the foul-mouthed superhero, Jason Bateman as his accidental publicist, and Theron as Bateman's wary wife. It's her first big-money, bangs-and-whistles action film since she won an ...