"You know, I think my smoking years are done."

As Charlize Theron virtually disappears behind a plume of cigarette smoke, immediate evidence appears to point to the contrary, but the actress is resolute.

"I'm just counting the hours," she insists. "I think a good solid ten years is enough."

One thing a good solid ten years has been precisely enough for is to turn an unknown South African wannabe who could barely speak a word of English into an international movie star with around 25 credits to her name.

Just two weeks after settling into a fleabag Hollywood motel back in '93 a manager saw her grappling with bureaucrats in a local bank, and promptly handed her his business card. For once it turned out the stranger actually was a manager.

Fast forward ten years and she's sitting on a body of work the envy of a thousand other blonde LA-imports: Sweet November, Reindeer Games, Cider House Rules, Men of Honour, The Astronaut's Wife, Legend of Bagger Vance; not exactly a list from Blockbuster's 'straight to video' section.

Then there are the co-stars and directors: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Johnny Depp, Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Michael Caine, Woody Allen, Ed Norton, Ben Affleck, Keanu Reeves; all A-List, with a smattering of A plus.

Which to a former model and ballet dancer has been the best acting masterclass any aspiring Thespian could have asked for.

"The things you learn from other actors you will never ever learn in an acting class," she says sucking on another ciggie, sitting barefoot and cross-legged on her hotel suite's sofa. "You'd be an idiot not to."

Any favourites?

"Al Pacino was really fucking amazing (The Devil's Advocate, 1997). A lot of actors have a fear of going to any extent to get it right, but not him. The first time I worked with him he did about 13 takes that were shit and I went, Oh my god, what is Al doing? And it was only at the end of the day when this fucking magic happened then I realised he'd been taking every fucking road that he could possibly take. To watch somebody be that brave and say 'I don't care what anyone thinks'; that was a great lesson to learn."

Similarly tutorial was Robert Redford, her director on 2000's The Legend of Bagger Vance.

"I remember having this moment where I grabbed Matt Damon and finally let him know how I felt about the last 12 years of my life. I thought this is the revealing moment about how she fucking feels about this man and we did it about 12 times and it was so unbelievably bad. Robert told me to go away and do something to make me completely forget about the scene, we came back in an hour and it happened. It was a great lesson to learn that you can't put so much importance on one thing. Now I refuse to read scripts and go 'that's the moment'"

Theron's most recent co-star was Kevin Bacon in the abduction thriller Trapped, and again lessons were learned.

"I fucking love him," she says. "We would literally be laughing our asses off - he's very mischievous and funny - and then do a take. But that would be OK because when he's working he gives me everything that I need to respond to."

Coming up later in the year Charlize will be seen in the much-anticipated Hollywood remake of The Italian Job, naturally set in LA - ("well, the film starts in Italy and we shot there for three weeks") - and then Monster, based on the real life of prostitute-turned-serial-killer Aileen Wuornos. Lesbian Wuornos was not a woman exactly known for her natural beauty, so should we expect Nicole Kidman-style prosthetics?

"I'm going to try and get under her skin as much as I possibly can, let's just say that."

No false hooter then?

"Well we have a great special effects artist that works with (makeup maestro) Rick Baker, but you're asking me to show you how the magic tricks are done and you're just going to be disappointed once I do."

Possibly the only disappointment Charlize fans will endure in the near future is some planned time off.

"I went through a period three years ago where I really wanted to work all the time, and then you change," she says lighting up a fresh one. "But actors are a strange breed; we feel that if we're not working we're never going to work again. You never know what's going to come to you, but I'm getting much more comfortable."