a battle with a major designer a brush
with paralysis embracing roles from
serial killers to evil queens what
hasn't charlize theron done in her life
stay tuned to find out the untold truth
of charlize theron
charlize theron was born on august 7
1975 in bononi south africa during this
time the country was under apartheid an
institutionally racist system that
segregated white and black people the
latter of whom were prohibited from
entering white society and robbed of
their human rights theron has ambivalent
feelings towards her home country as a
white south african she's acknowledged
her privilege admitting that she was
allowed to flourish as a result of the
country's white supremacist ideology as
theron recalled to npr she was raised on
her parents farm which relied on the
labor of black workers who in turn lived
with the family as such theron did not
grow up being influenced by the racism
though she did ponder whether a
wealthier upbringing would have altered
her values for the worse telling the
outlet that was a lot for me to carry it
still is it is i think it's something
that i'll carry for the rest of my life
despite this the actor cannot lose the
connection she feels to her native
country telling gq i love my country and
it's very hard for south africans to
believe that because i left and speak in
an american accent
that's when you're really wasted
there's gonna be a lot of things with
drinking in here i'm sure
the relationship between charlize
theron's parents charles and gerda was
fraught while charlize theron has long
idolized her mother telling the guardian
that she's the living person she most
admires the same cannot be said for her
father as charlie's reflected to npr my
father was a very sick man my father was
an alcoholic all my life i only knew him
one way and that was as an alcoholic it
was a pretty hopeless situation in 1991
when charlize was 15 her life would be
forever changed after witnessing her
father's death armed with a gun charles
threatened to kill both charlie's and
her mother to protect her daughter gerda
shot him dead and as charlie's admitted
to abc news i know that if my daughter
was in the same situation i would do the
same thing
acting in self-defense gerda was never
prosecuted for her husband's death
charlize theron opened up about the
horrifying experience emphasizing that
she's not ashamed of discussing her
trauma telling npr this family violence
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 in any of it i think if you
haven't dealt with it then then you're
affected but i've completely dealt with
it something that happened a very long
time ago
according to gq charlize theron left
south africa a year after her father's
death with dreams of becoming a model in
milan she had previously modeled in her
home country but things didn't go so
smoothly once she left the country the
16 year old was soon faced with the
stark reality of the modeling industry's
body negativity as she told vogue i was
too tall too big too late for the
supermodel look of the 80s kate moss and
all the tiny grungy girls had just
become fashionable and i didn't fit the
bill subsequently she was told that she
could make it as a model if she
conformed to restrictive beauty
standards revealing to the new york
times that she was constantly asked to
lose five pounds to make it in the
profession when oprah asked the actor
about her brief stint as a model theron
explained that she felt stifled by the
profession saying it just wasn't
artistically satisfying for me because i
like to say what's on my mind on
swapping catwalk ambitions for hollywood
dreams the actor has been quick to
dismiss the notion that it was easy for
her due to being blessed with good looks
revealing to gq that while being
attractive may open doors it may not be
a door that someone would want to go
through
for charlize theron ballet was an escape
from her troubled home life as well as
the horrors of apartheid as she revealed
to the new york times she considered
herself more of a dancer than a model
but despite ballet being her first love
her dreams were soon shattered after a
series of injuries as she told far out i
realized i couldn't dance anymore and i
went into a major depression my mom came
over from south africa and said either
you figure out what to do next or you
come home because you can sulk in south
africa theron told the new york times
that her mom bought her a one-way plane
ticket to hollywood where she resided in
a grubby motel during a particularly
difficult time in her life as therin
told cbs she was living paycheck to
paycheck and in one desperate moment she
stole bread from a restaurant finding
her footsteps in hollywood also meant
she was subjected to the advances of
predators in an interview with npr
theron revealed that a director touched
her inappropriately in 1994 when she was
a young actor struggling to make it in
the industry saying that is the
unfortunate thing about sexual
harassment you never get that moment
where you feel like the tables are
reversed and now he's finally getting it
after scoring a couple of minor roles in
movies notably horror flick children of
the corn 3 urban harvest charlize theron
got her big break in 1996. this was all
thanks to none other than america's dad
tom hanks after theron auditioned for
hank's directorial debut that thing you
do both he and producer ed saxon were
convinced that no one other than theron
could play tina powers as saxon
elaborated to the ringer i remember tom
saying gentlemen we just met a movie
star she was smart glamorous and had a
phenomenal sense of humor she initially
auditioned for the role of faye but
hanks was having none of it as he
recalled theron was quote too much of a
supernova to play faye despite hank's
faith in theron's talent she struggled
with self-doubt she struggled with her
nerves while filming but thankfully
hanks was there to help the budding star
out as she recalled to backstage he just
got up and was like you know what i
really need to go to the bathroom i'll
be back it was his way of giving me a
breather when you have people who have
that kind of kindness you're incredibly
grateful
he's everything to me he was the first
actor whose name i knew
following that thing you do charlize
theron was suddenly inundated with movie
work she was cast alongside keanu reeves
in 1997's the devil's advocate then in
1999 she starred in the oscar winner the
cider house rules while theron has never
had any complaints about working with
reeves she admitted to v magazine that
she had difficulties acting alongside
toby mcguire in the latter productions
saying toby and i had a rough time but
her most pivotal role came in 2003 when
she transformed into serial killer
eileen wuornos with the encouragement of
director patty jenkins theron took on
the extremely demanding role for which
she gained 40 pounds as she revealed to
marie claire she had doubts about taking
the role at first but said the thing
that convinced me ultimately was that i
never had somebody believe in me like
that before and all of a sudden this
woman is sitting in front of me and
she's like you have to you're the only
person who can
that faith in theron was handsomely
rewarded as she earned not only rave
reviews for her performance but an oscar
win as well for the draining role
after appearing together in the 2002
film trapped charlize theron and irish
actor stuart townsend fell in love
speaking with irish america townsend
described the moment he fell for his
lady love as they'd both gone out to
grab dinner with the director of the
film saying all i remember is charlize
had a dog with her and i remember
thinking oh there's the mad lady with
the dog but then that night we went out
to dinner with the director and i
arrived a little early and she arrived a
little early and she just looked like a
million dollars meanwhile theron
couldn't believe her luck when she
snagged townsend telling abc the lotto
was scratched and i won i don't think i
could have imagined a love like that
theron felt grateful that she and
townsend were rarely subjected to
tabloid intrusion which she attributes
to the couple keeping the relationship
low-key yet this was a passionate
relationship as she told vogue it's more
than love i've been in love before but
have i ever been with somebody who i
really truly felt had my back and was my
best friend no not until stuart sadly
their love did not stand the test of
time and they called it quits in 2010.
charlize theron isn't afraid to tackle
demanding roles in 2005 she starred in
north country as a minor facing
discrimination and sexual harassment
this was a role theron was particularly
keen to take on due to parallels between
her protagonist josie and her own
working class mother as she explained to
roger ebert when i was growing up my
mother was the only woman in the road
construction business so i knew some of
what goes on north country was directed
by new zealand filmmaker nikki carro
speaking with female theron discussed
the importance of working with female
directors particularly with regards to
such sensitive subject matter saying
coming off my little bit of success i
thought well if anybody's gonna give me
any power there's a handful of women
that i really want to work with and
nikki was one of them the new york times
praised theron's performance in an
otherwise mixed review and the film saw
the actor gain her second oscar
nomination though she ultimately lost
out to reese witherspoon for her role
and walk the line
charlize theron has long been dedicated
to hiv aids awareness and lgbtq plus
activism in 2007 she started the
charlize theron africa outreach project
which aims to fight hiv in south africa
that's the part that maybe drives me the
most and wanting to really get that
across that
we can stop aids
additionally theron is a vocal champion
of lgbtq plus rights prior to the 2015
supreme court ruling that legalized
same-sex unions theron campaigned for
equal marriage even claiming on the view
in 2009 that she and stuart townsend
wouldn't wed until marriage was legal
for all in 2019 she confirmed to the
daily mail that her eldest child jackson
began exploring her gender identity at a
young age revealing she looked at me
when she was three years old and said i
am not a boy so there you go i have two
beautiful daughters who just like any
parent i want to protect and i want to
see thrive
theron has spoken about the importance
of respecting her daughter's pronouns
telling pride source my daughter's story
is really her story and one day if she
chooses she'll tell her story i feel
like as her mother for me it was
important to let the world know that i
would appreciate it if they would use
the right pronouns for her
throughout the years charlize theron has
been prone to numerous onset afflictions
during the filming of 2005's eon flux
she was almost paralyzed revealing to
news.com.eu
it was very severe i was a centimeter
away from being completely paralyzed for
the rest of my life it definitely woke
me up to okay you have to be prepared i
had eight years of pain management where
i just couldn't get rid of the spasms
and the nerve damage although theron
resolved to avoid further injury her
attempts were ultimately in vain in 2012
she was injured when making snow white
and the huntsman this time it was the
temper tantrums of her character queen
ravenna that caused the damage telling
mtv i screamed so much at people i tore
a stomach muscle which i had never heard
of that before according to deadline in
2017 she cracked her teeth when filming
atomic blonde due to clenching her mouth
too hard that wasn't all though when
making the old guard in 2020 she faced
some particularly nasty injuries telling
stellar i basically lost all control of
my hand and i was shooting all this
stuff riding a horse with a hand that
had no function in it it wasn't until i
was done with the film that i realized i
needed three surgeries i also want to
know how is your hand
my hand's doing well yeah i uh oh it
looks a little scabby maybe you
shouldn't get a close-up of that
by 2009 charlize theron had decided to
take a break from the big screen and
began dedicating herself to other
projects in 2010 she appeared in the
music video for crossfire by the
killer's front man brandon flowers she
otherwise stayed busy during her break
but not in front of the camera choosing
instead to put her attention on more
behind the camera rolls she explained
that she wasn't finding many interesting
roles as an actor so she shifted her
focus to producing and developing
television projects after two years she
returned to acting for young adult where
she played a washed-up sweatpant
sporting ghost writer of young adult
fiction obsessed with her high school
flame speaking with huffpost she
explained why she chose to break her
acting hiatus for the diablo cody penned
dramedy saying it was really different
when i originally read it i thought that
it was ballsy in the sense that diablo
wrote a character a protagonist who
learns a lesson but doesn't necessarily
make a change in her life and it felt
very real to me it felt very human to me
director jason reitman said he would
never have taken on young adult without
theron telling vogue really the only way
i was going to do this movie was if
charlize wanted to do it it's a really
tricky screenplay to pull off because
the main character is so unlikable
charlize theron adopted her first child
a baby named jackson in 2012 following
the adoption she told vogue i've always
been very honest in saying i wanted a
family i've always known i wanted a
family i don't think my mom could wait
anymore us weekly reported that
following her breakup with sean penn in
2015 she adopted her second child august
at the time she opened up to w magazine
about becoming a first-time mother in
her late 30s saying that the overall
experience was great and had given her
perspective it's definitely interesting
to kind of watch the two of them grow up
in the same house and be so different
they just have different personalities
and i have absolutely nothing to do with
that adopting had been something that
theron had dreamt about since she was a
child on diane von furstenberg's podcast
in charge with dvf she revealed her
early desires saying my mom has a letter
that i wrote to her when i was eight
years old and in the letter i asked her
if we could for christmas go to an
orphanage to adopt a brother or sister
for me asked whether she ever wanted a
biological child theron said that the
decision to adopt was largely shaped by
her single status and that while she was
open to the idea of having a child with
a partner adoption was her first choice
with a hefty 170 million dollar net
worth charlize theron owes much of that
dough to her work for luxury brands as
well as her many acting gigs however her
role as a brand ambassador has on
occasion found her in hot water during a
press event in 2007 she wore a dior
watch despite raymond vale having paid
her three million dollars to sport their
goods people reported that the latter
company sued her for 20 million and the
case was settled for an undisclosed
amount in 2004 she signed a deal with
dior becoming the face of the fragrance
jadore according to cnn her three-year
contract was worth somewhere between
three million dollars and five million
dollars though the actor's partnership
with the high-end brand continues
suggesting that she's raked in mega
bucks throughout the years while earning
that bread theron has also used her
partnership with dior for good in 2018
she spoke out to harper's bazaar about
the importance of diversity in
advertising highlighting a movement of
women from different countries with
individual backgrounds and cultures
coming together to demand more
representation she also spoke glowingly
of the dior brand saying anytime i work
with dior there is always a conversation
happening about diversity and the
perception of women and i'm lucky to get
to work with a brand that is as
interested in those questions as i am
in recent years the already versatile
theron has branched out even further the
2010s saw her star in two highly
disparate films a million ways to die in
the west in 2014 and bombshell in 2019
comedy hasn't typically been associated
with theron but these days she's game
for tickling our funny bones she
partnered with seth macfarlane for his
aforementioned comedy western with the
newbie director praising her versatility
in an interview with the new york times
meanwhile bombshell which sees theron
play megan kelly tackled a subject
that's followed her around for much of
her career sexual harassment speaking
with vogue she explained her willingness
to play a character whose political
views are diametrically opposed to her
own saying it's something that no woman
wants to be defined by especially an
ambitious woman who wants to be known
for her work all of the women involved
had to face that it was incredibly brave
in recent years she's also lent her name
to family friendly projects voicing
morticia in the addams family flicks and
starring in upcoming netflix fantasy the
school for good and evil exhibiting her
willingness to experiment as a performer
if there is any word that typifies
theron's life story bravery certainly
comes to mind from humble beginnings in
south africa to hollywood stardom
charlize has survived the fury road to
become the atomic blonde she is today
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