Charlize Theron
From a South African farm to the Oscar-laden heights of Hollywood
A little over 20 years ago, a lonely South African teenager landed in Los Angeles without a ticket home. After modeling in Europe fizzled and her knee, as well as her dreams of being a dancer, gave out in New York, her mother—who had shot her abusive father to death years earlier in self-defense—told the despondent girl to either try something else or come home. After all, she could always “sulk in South Africa.” Reminding her that she liked movies, her mother suggested that she go to Hollywood because “that’s where they make them.” So when the young woman strolled out of the airport with little more than the clothes on her slender back, she got into a cab and simply said, “Take me to Hollywood.”
Her name was Charlize Theron, and after two aborted careers, she was going to give acting a shot.
It didn’t take long for people to notice her. Even in Hollywood, where blondes are a dime a dozen, she stood out. There was, at a shade under six feet, an imposing intensity about her. In addition, unlike most wannabe starlets, Charlize’s looks managed to cover all spectrums of beauty. Yes, she was hot, in a centerfold kind of way—she even posed for Playboy in 1999—but there was also intelligence and class to her look. Once Theron (pronounced throne in her native Afrikaans) had scrubbed her accent clean, she soon secured a sizzling hot supporting role in 2 Days in the Valley that, while not big on screen time, left a sizable impression and led to big love-interest parts in The Devil’s Advocate (1997), The Cider House Rules (1999) and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000). But it wasn’t until 2003 that she really displayed her acting chops, transforming herself into world-beaten lesbian serial killer Aileen Wournos in Monster and humbly yet triumphantly picking up an Oscar for it.
Since then, Theron has proven repeatedly that, even years later, she could not only play the fairest of them all (in Snow White and the Huntsmen) but, as Amazonian ass-kicker Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, the fiercest as well. While most actresses’ careers begin to shrink as they crack 40, Theron’s onscreen persona has managed to expand rather than devolve, growing more versatile every year by pushing the envelope of her boundless talent—and, much like the wide-eyed, long-legged beauty that arrived in Hollywood two decades ago, never looking back.
