Charlize Theron was the first to read actor-turned-director and longtime beau Stuart Townsend's script for the political drama Battle in Seattle, and says she was hooked right off the bat when the pages, still hot from the printer, were handed to her in their kitchen.

"I couldn't stop reading it... I was so impressed," she told a Sunday press conference, one day after the Canadian premiere of the Vancouver-shot feature, about the riots that confronted the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.

Theron and first-time helmer Townsend were flanked by the film's cast, including Woody Harrelson, who portrays a police officer and Theron's husband, Outkast frontmant André Benjamin, Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious) and Martin Henderson (The Ring).

Battle, which shot over 29 days in November and December last year, was coproduced by Kirk Shaw of Vancouver's Insight Film Studios.

Despite its serious themes, the cast was in a jokey mood, as Harrelson recalled when he first heard about the project.

"We were all playing dominoes at Salma Hayek's house... when I heard him [Townsend] talk about it. I had to badger him to get the part," he quipped.

Oscar-winner Theron and Townsend previously acted together on the Montreal-shot war drama Head in the Clouds and the sci-fi Aeon Flux.

While he enjoys working with his actress-girlfriend, the Irish-born Townsend says it was embarrassing at times.

"She would call me by my pet name on set, and then the crew started calling me by my pet name," he said, smiling, though he refused to reveal the name was when asked by reporters.