'Long Shot' pairs Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen in political romance

LONDON (Reuters) - Oscar winner Charlize Theron and comedy actor Seth Rogen join forces in rom-com "Long Shot", playing an unlikely love pairing between a powerful politician and an unemployed dishevelled journalist. The 43-year-old actress takes on the role of U.S. Secretary of State Charlotte Field in the movie, an ambitious and respected politician looking to run for president. In a chance encounter she bumps into Fred Flarsky, played by Rogen, a liberal and at times clumsy reporter she babysat as a child and he begins working for her as a speech writer. "I read a couple of biographies on female secretary of states. We had some speechwriters on the set who were really helpful and just kind of explaining logistics of the job," Theron told Reuters about preparing for the role. "I never really wanted her to be based on somebody, I just wanted it to be believable." Rogen said his character, who stumbles down stairs and stands out for his casual wear, was "stylistically based on some of the journalists that have interviewed me in the past. "I notice that a lot of them dress like 12-year-olds," he added in a joint interview with Theron. The romantic comedy, with plenty of laugh out loud moments, follows the pair as Field travels the world working on an environmental campaign and their romance blossoms. Director Jonathan Levine said the actors did a lot of improvisation on set and that the movie sought to touch on some real life matters in a funny way. "Once we figured out we needed to make it close enough to real life that we could comment on real life but far enough that we wouldn't inspire people's anger about everyday things, that's when we really felt like we had found our lane ," he said. "We were able to use comedy as a tool to comment and maybe even make people think about stuff." "Long Shot" hits cinemas worldwide from Wednesday. (Reporting By Hanna Rantala; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Editing by William Maclean)