She saw a terrible and life-changing incident as a little child: her mother shot her violent father dead in self-defense.
She overcame hardship in spite of her traumatic history and eventually found her way to Hollywood, where she not only established a prosperous career but also won the highest accolade – an Academy Award.
An unimaginable catastrophe
Hollywood is full with celebrities who overcame adversity and proved everyone wrong by fighting their way to the top. Many A-listers earned their spot among the elite by pure perseverance; they didn’t begin with luxury or connections.
Charlize Theron, an actress, was never intended to be merely another attractive person. For ladies like her, Hollywood had a box: eye candy, mute, and interchangeable. She wouldn’t play that game, though. She’d already experienced more than most people could fathom.
One of Hollywood’s highest-paid celebrities is South African-American actress and producer Charlize Theron. Few can match her career, which includes an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a place on Time’s list of the 100 most important people in the world.
However, her life was characterized by an unimaginable tragedy prior to her fame and wealth.
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Born on August 7, 1975, in Benoni, South Africa, Charlize Theron comes from a well-known Afrikaner family. She has Dutch, French, and German ancestry; her French ancestors were among the first Huguenots to settle in South Africa.
Her family history goes much beyond that; she is even linked to Danie Theron, a well-known military leader from the Second Boer War. Her mother, Gerda Maritz, and father, Charles Theron, both worked in road building.
Theron’s first language is Afrikaans, although she speaks English fluently now. Even though she would eventually become a Hollywood star, her early years in South Africa were influenced by both unfathomable adversity and riches.
The reasons behind her school bullying
When it came to the boys, Charlize Theron was the girl who never quite fit in as a child.
In a recent interview with PEOPLE in New York, she disclosed, “I wore really nerdy glasses because I was blind as could be and the boys didn’t like [me].” “I had a lot of crushes but no boyfriends.”
Although she yearned to be among the popular set, she ended up doing some “crazy things” in an effort to join in after being ignored by a male she admired.
“I wasn’t among the crowd that was popular. I was completely enamored with a girl who was very popular at school. Theron laughs and remarks, “I mean, you would go to jail for that stuff today.” “One day, I was crying because I was unable to sit next to her.”
It was made more difficult by her classmates, who teased her because of her glasses, untidy hair, and attire.
Between the ages of 7 and 12, I really experienced a lot of the mean female things. She acknowledges, “I was pretty much a mess in primary school.” “However, by the time I entered high school, I had moved past that and was more resilient to all of that.”
Her dad was an aggressive drunk.
In Benoni, just outside of Johannesburg, Charlize Theron was raised on her parents’ farm. Although it should have been a tranquil spot, it was the scene of a night that would permanently alter her life.
Her father, a violent drinker, returned home in a drunken rage on June 21, 1991. It was worse than ever this time. An aunt called to alert the family to Charles’s agitation, sensing trouble.
Theron, who was fifteen at the time, remembered the unsettling sense of dread that descended upon her.
“Instinct comes from nature. She added, “And I knew something bad was going to happen.”
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Her father was out of control when he got home, threatening Charlize and her mother and letting his rage run amok. Then he reached for a firearm.
Charlize told NPR, “My mom and I were in my bedroom, leaning against the door because he was trying to push through.”
In an attempt to prevent him from entering, we were both leaning against the door from the inside. He backed off a step and blasted through the door three times.
“It’s a miracle that none of the bullets ever hit us,” Charlize continued.
Gerda, Charlize’s mother, was powerless as he fired at them. She grabbed her own pistol, squeezed the trigger, and fired at her husband. It was a survival tactic.
The horror of that night would follow Charlize for the rest of her life, even though the courts decided it was self-defense and Gerda was not charged.
“Big belly, thin legs”
According to Charlize, her father was a tall man with “skinny legs and a big belly,” who loved life and humor despite his serious demeanor.
Nevertheless, she admitted that he battled drinking.
Theron remarked, “My dad was a big guy, tall, skinny legs, big belly.” Despite his serious demeanor, he loved to joke and lived a good life. He had an illness, too. He was a drunkard.
She acknowledged that “he was a verbal abuser,” but she made it clear that he had never physically harmed her.
Naturally, the 1991 episode rocked her to her very core. The Oscar winner was profoundly affected by the incident and thought,
“I share this family violence, this type of violence that occurs within the family, with many people.”
“I don’t feel embarrassed to discuss it because I believe that the more we discuss these topics, the more we understand that we are not alone in any of it,” she added. “I believe that this story has always been about growing up with addicts and the effects that can have on a person.”
Rather of shattering her, the tragedy served as the fuel for her inexorable ascent.
I’m proud that I made it through that. “I’ve put a lot of effort into that as well,” Theron said to The New York Times. And that does not frighten me. In the dark, I have no dread. If anything, I find it fascinating because I believe it provides a better explanation of human nature and individuals.
How she was found in Hollywood
After the shooting, Theron said, the real battle started. That summed up my early years. She acknowledged that the aftermath of the incident was much more eerie than the actual incident, saying, “My trauma was all of that.”
With just a suitcase and an unwavering determination, Charlize Theron arrived in Los Angeles at the age of 19. She had undeveloped talent and a strong want to succeed, but no connections or support. A talent agent once overheard her shouting with a bank teller about a bounced check. Hollywood was opened to her by that fortuitous meeting, but Charlize understood she had to battle for every chance.
Her breakthrough performance was in The Devil’s Advocate (1997), where she defended her position opposite Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. Hollywood began to pay attention. But she didn’t really startle everyone until 2003. She dramatically changed her look for Monster, abandoning her dazzling persona and putting on weight to play serial killer Aileen Wuornos. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for the gritty portrayal.
Despite having proven herself, Charlize had no intention of being cautious.
has played a number of murderers
She kept pushing the envelope by landing parts in comedies, dramas, and action movies. She produced movies and pushed for more equal roles for women, making her one of Hollywood’s most powerful women both in front of and behind the camera.
And in 2015, aged 40, when Hollywood tends to ignore actresses, Charlize reinvented herself again. She dominated Mad Max: Fury Road as Furiosa, solidifying her reputation as a Hollywood warrior in addition to an actress.
Theron has played a number of murderers in her career, so it may come as a surprise considering her experience that she choose to play serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Aileen Wuornos became the focus of Monster. She was a former prostitute who was executed in Florida in 2002 for the murders of six men (she was never charged for a seventh murder).
Charlize Theron’s performance was praised by film critic Roger Ebert as “one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema.”
Theron told The New York Times, “People like Aileen Wuornos are often just labeled and pushed aside, with no one wanting to truly understand them.” “No one inquires as to why this occurred. The “why” intrigues me. Because that very question is, in many ways, the reason I am here today.➕
