She was a child when her mother shot her violent father in self-defense, changing her life. She overcame her difficult history and went on to Hollywood, where she had a brilliant career and won an Academy Award.
Many Hollywood stars sprang from nothing, overcoming the odds and proving everyone wrong. Through perseverance, many A-listers rose to the top without privilege or connections. Nobody ever expected Charlize Theron to have such a beautiful face. She fit Hollywood’s category of pretty, quiet, interchangeable women. She declined that game. She’d endured more than most.
South African actress and producer Charlize Theron is one of Hollywood’s highest-paid talents. With an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and Time’s 100 most important people list, she’s had a remarkable career. Before her fame and prosperity, she suffered an inconceivable catastrophe.
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Charlize Theron was born in Benoni, South Africa, to renowned Afrikaner parents on August 7, 1975. She was descended from Dutch, French, and German immigrants, including early Huguenots in South Africa. Her parents, Charles Theron and Gerda Maritz, built roads, but she is connected to Danie Theron, a famous Second Boer War leader. She was a child when her mother shot her violent father in self-defense, changing her life.
She overcame her difficult history and went on to Hollywood, where she had a brilliant career and won an Academy Award. Many Hollywood stars sprang from nothing, overcoming the odds and proving everyone wrong. Through perseverance, many A-listers rose to the top without privilege or connections.
Nobody ever expected Charlize Theron to have such a beautiful face. She fit Hollywood’s category of pretty, quiet, interchangeable women. She declined that game. She’d endured more than most. South African actress and producer Charlize Theron is one of Hollywood’s highest-paid talents. With an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and Time’s 100 most important people list, she’s had a remarkable career.
Before her fame and prosperity, she suffered an inconceivable catastrophe.
Charlize Theron was born in Benoni, South Africa, to renowned Afrikaner parents on August 7, 1975. She was descended from Dutch, French, and German immigrants, including early Huguenots in South Africa. Her parents, Charles Theron and Gerda Maritz, built roads, but she is connected to Danie Theron, a famous Second Boer War leader. Theron is fluent in English but originally spoke Afrikaans. Though she would later dominate Hollywood, her childhood in South Africa was marked by riches and terrible misery.
As a child, Charlize Theron never fit in, especially with guys. “I wore really nerdy glasses because I was as blind as could be, and the boys didn’t like [me],” she told PEOPLE in New York. “No boyfriends, but lots of crushes.”
She did “crazy things” to fit in after a male she admired neglected her.
I was not popular. I was enamored with a popular schoolgirl. That stuff would get you jailed now, Theron laughs. “I cried one day because I couldn’t sit next to her.” Her peers teased her for her spectacles, hair, and outfits. “I got a lot of mean girl stuff from 7 to 12. She confesses she was messy throughout early school. “But by high school, I was immune to all of that.” As a child, Charlize Theron lived on her parents’ farm in Benoni, close outside Johannesburg. One night changed her life forever.
Her aggressive alcoholic father returned home intoxicated on June 21, 1991. Never before had it been worse. An aunt called to tell the family that Charles was upset. Theron, 15, remembered the odd fear that overcame her. Nature gives instinct. And I knew something horrible would happen,” she claimed.
When her father arrived home, he threatened Charlize and her mother and became violent. He grabbed a pistol. Charlize told NPR, “My mom and I were in my bedroom, leaning against the door because he was trying to push through.”
We were leaning against the door from the inside to keep him out. He retreated and fired three times through the door.” Charlize said, “None of the bullets ever hit us, which is a miracle.” As he fired, Charlize’s mother, Gerda, had no option. She fired her firearm at her spouse. Survival was the goal. It was self-defense, and Gerda was acquitted, but Charlize would never forget that night.
Charlize thought her father was tall with “skinny legs and a big belly,” serious yet full of joy and vitality. He suffered with drinking, she said.
“My dad was a big guy, tall, skinny legs, big belly,” Theron remarked. “He could be serious but loved to laugh and enjoy life. He was sick too. An alcoholic.”
Although he never physically atta.c.ked her, she said, “He was a verbal abu.s.er.” Naturally, the 1991 event devastated her. The Oscar-winner reflected,
“This family violence, this kind of violence within the family, is something I share with many people.”
“I’m not ashamed to talk about it, because I do think that the more we talk about these things, the more we realize we are not alone,” she said. “For me, this story has always been about growing up with addicts and what that does to a person.”
Trauma fueled her relentless climb, not broke her.
I’m proud I survived. I worked hard for it, too,” Theron told The NYT. That doesn’t worry me. I’m not afraid of darkness. I find it fascinating because it better explains human nature and people.”
Theron said the battle began after the shooting. That was my childhood. My trauma was all of that,” she said, adding that the aftermath was worse than the incident. Charlize Theron landed in Los Angeles at 19 with a bag and determination. She had no ties or assistance, only ability and a passionate drive. During a bounced check argument with a bank teller, a talent agent overheard her. That fortuitous meeting led to Hollywood, but Charlize realized she had to work for every chance.
With Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in The Devil’s Advocate (1997), she made her mark. Hollywood took note. She astonished everyone in 2003. For Monster, she gained weight and lost her attractive look to play serial murderer Aileen Wuornos. Her tough portrayal won her an Oscar for Best Actress.
Charlize exuded confidence without resorting to caution.
She broke boundaries by acting in drama, comedy, and action pictures. She produced films and advocated for women’s rights, becoming one of Hollywood’s most important women.
Hollywood traditionally sidelines women after 40, but Charlize reinvented herself again in 2015. She dominated Mad Max: Fury Road as Furiosa, solidifying her career as a Hollywood warrior and actress.
Theron has played many kil.l.ers, so it may be unexpected that she played serial kil.l.er Aileen Wuornos in Monster.
Monster focused on Aileen Wuornos, a former prostitute who was hanged in Florida in 2002 for killing six men (she was never prosecuted for a seventh) in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Roger Ebert called Charlize Theron’s performance “one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema.”
“People like Aileen Wuornos are often just labeled and pushed aside, with no one wanting to truly understand them,” Theron told The New York Times. “No one asks, ‘Why did this happen?’” I wonder ‘why.’ In many ways, that question brought me here today.”