While in the UK promoting her role in Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West, Charlize Theron said she thinks that the lengths at which reporters go to cover her private life is comparable to being raped.

"I don't [Google myself] — that's my saving grace," she told Sky News. "When you start living in that world, and doing that, you start feeling raped." When the reporter offered her the chance to walk her answer back, she decided to double-down: "Well, when it comes to your son and your private life. Maybe it's just me."

She went on:

"Some people might relish in all that stuff but there are certain things in my life that I think of as very sacred and I am very protective over them.

"I don't always win that war but as long as I don't have to see that stuff or read that stuff or hear that stuff then I can live with my head in a clear space, which is probably a lot healthier than living in that dark room."

"I can't be concerned about what some idiot is going to write online about my short skirt, I can only take responsibility for myself," she said.

It's a curious choice of words for the actress, who starred in a controversial anti-rape campaign commercial that aired in her native South Africa in 1999.

In fact, in 2005, she told Oprah herself in O Magazine (page 9) how strongly she feels about rape:

I know how people think in South Africa. AIDS, rape, divorce, violence against women—nobody ever talks about it. You just sweep it under the rug. I want to do something to change that mentality. It has to change. What kills me is that people with HIV in South Africa can't live their lives honestly because they become outcasts. They get kicked out of their communities and have nowhere to go. Same with rape. I feel that if there was a conversation happening in South Africa where rape became a topic at dinner, then women wouldn't have to hide or feel that they caused it.

[Image via Getty]