When is enough, enough?
When does the weight of the past smother you into submission?
When does a lost hope become a last hope, causing you to throw in the towel?
For Charlize Theron, the answer was simple: never.
—
Charlize Theron was born on August 7th, 1975 in the rural town of Benoni in South Africa. Her parents, Charles and Gerda, raised her on a working farm in Johannesburg while operating a road construction company.
Though Theron enjoyed her experience tending to livestock on the farm, her true love was dancing. She first took ballet lessons at the age of six, and came to excel. On the other hand, school life was hard. “I actually got a lot of the mean girl stuff from the ages of 7 to 12. I was pretty much a mess in primary school,” she told People.
Fortunately, the following year, she was sent to boarding school at the National School of the Arts. Here she learnt other dance styles including flamenco and contemporary. The week days were wonderful; filled with excitement and activity. Though some residual bullying remained, Theron was happy knowing she was getting to do what she loved.
On the other hand, weekends at home had become hell. Charles had become an alcoholic, and was starting to abuse Gerda. Theron struggled to defend her mother, but there was little she could do.
It all came to a head in 1991. Charles attacked Gerda who, in self-defence, shot him as Theron looked on. He was killed instantly. Gerda wasn’t charged with a crime, as she had fired the weapon to protect both her and her daughter, but concern over how the incident would be perceived led to Theron creating a story in which her father had died in a car accident.
Things started to look up the following year, when Theron won a local modelling contest. She went on to win the International New Model Today competition in Italy, where she was flooded with job opportunities. Before long, she had taken up residence in Milan, and was travelling all over Europe for shoots.
Modelling, however, was just a way to pay the bills. Theron’s desire to dance professionally was as strong as ever, so after a year she relocated to New York, where she studied at the Joffrey Ballet School. She worked hard to achieve her dream, but tragedy soon struck again:
“I went to New York for three days to model, and then I spent a winter in New York in a friend’s windowless basement apartment. I was broke, I was taking class at the Joffrey Ballet, and my knees gave out. I realised I couldn’t dance anymore, and I went into a major depression,” Theron explained to The New York Times.
Her mother flew over from South Africa for encouragement, and ended up giving Theron the push she needed to move on. Gerda gave her two options: return to South Africa, or decide what to turn her attention to next.
Theron had always been interested in acting, so Gerda bought her a one-way ticket to Los Angeles.
“My mum has made it possible for me to be who I am. Our family is everything. Her greatest skill was encouraging me to find my own person and own independence,” she would later say.
Arriving at the airport, Theron declared to her taxi driver “take me to Hollywood!” Instead, he took her to a small, disgusting, pay-by-the-hour motel close to the Hollywood sign, which she was forced to clean herself before settling in. She was broke, and was forced to consume half-eaten bread stolen from restaurants.
Once again, a sudden change in Theron’s life awaited her when she walked into a bank to cash a $500 cheque from her mother. When the teller refused to process it because the cheque was from another state, Theron unleashed all her anger, hopelessness, and uncertainty upon them. This outburst was witnessed by talent manager John Crosby, who immediately offered to represent her.
Though she would later fire him after he refused to send her scripts for anything but films in which she would play a nude/near-nude temptress in the style of Species or Showgirls, Crosby introduced Theron to a range of people who would help her get her start.
Her film debut came in the form of an uncredited part in Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest in 1995, though her first important role came the following year when she played a hitwoman in 2 Days in the Valley.
From there, Theron’s career went from strength to strength at unbelievable speeds. She starred in such successes as The Devil’s Advocate and The Cider House Rules in the late 90s. By the 2000s, she was revered as a new ‘It Girl’; a favourite of directors, though not yet of the studios.
It was a performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos that would come to define Theron’s career. In heavy prosthetics and makeup, she was unrecognisable, but the strength of her acting was undeniably clear. Theron went on to win The Academy Award for Best Actress, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. Film critic Roger Ebert called it “one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema”.
She took a sci-fi turn in 2005 with action movie Aeon Flux in the same year she appeared on Arrested Development during her most outstanding performance in television. Later, she would receive nominations at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for her role in North Country.
2007 marked the year Theron first turned her attention to philanthropy. She formed The Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project in order to support African children in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Her endeavours led to the United Nations making her a UN Messenger of Peace. You have consistently dedicated yourself to improving the lives of women and children in South Africa, and to preventing and stopping violence against women and girls,” declared Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
On an individual level, Theron has championed women’s rights, animal rights, and the right of same-sex marriage, stating she will not marry until everyone has the right to marry in the United States.
In 2008, Theron starred in superhero film Hancock, her highest grossing film to date. Afterwards, she took a three year hiatus, returning for such films as the award-nominated Young Adult, the Alien prequel Prometheus, and George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, in which she steals the show.
“You are only as great as the opportunities that are given to you.” It’s an ironic quote coming from an inspiring woman who never let personal anguish, physical pain, or tumultuous setbacks get in the way of her success. Indeed, you are only as great as the opportunities given to you, but Charlize Theron proves just what it sometimes takes to bring about those opportunities in the first place.