Charlize Theron (born 7 August 1975) is a
South African and American actress
and fashion model. She rose to
fame in the late 1990s following
roles in the films The Devils
Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young
(1998), and The Cider House Rules
(1999). Theron received critical
acclaim for her portrayal of
serial killer Aileen Wuornos in
Monster (2003), for which she won
the Silver Bear, Golden Globe
Award, Screen Actors Guild Award,
and Academy Award for Best Actress
among several other accolades,
becoming the first South African
to win an Academy Award in a major
acting category. In recent years,
she has moved into the field of
producing, both in television and
film.
She received further
Academy Award and Golden Globe
Award nominations for her
performance in North Country in
2005, and a Golden Globe Award
nomination for her performance in
Young Adult in 2011. In 2012, she
appeared in Snow White & the
Huntsman and Prometheus, both of
which were box office successes.
Theron became a U.S. citizen in
2007, while retaining her South
African citizenship.
Early life
Theron was born in Benoni, in the then-Transvaal Province of South
Africa, the only child of Gerda (née Maritz) and Charles Theron (born 27
November 1947). Second Boer War figure Danie Theron was her
great-great-uncle. Her ancestry includes French, German, and Dutch her
French forebears were early Huguenot settlers in South Africa. "Theron"
is an Occitan surname (originally spelled Théron) pronounced in
Afrikaans as , although she has said that the way she pronounces it in
South Africa . She changed the pronunciation when she moved to the U.S.
to give it a more "American" sound. She grew up on her parents farm in
Benoni, near Johannesburg. On 21 June 1991, Therons father, an
alcoholic, physically attacked her mother and threatened both her mother
and her while drunk Therons mother then shot and killed him. The
shooting was legally adjudged to have been self-defense and her mother
faced no charges.Theron attended Putfontein Primary School (Laerskool Putfontein), a period she later characterised as not "fitting in". At 13, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg.
Career
Although
seeing herself as a dancer, Theron at 16 won a one-year modeling
contract at a local competition in Salerno and with her mother moved
to Milan, Italy. After Theron spent a year modeling throughout Europe,
she and her mother moved to New York City and Miami, Florida. In New
York, she attended the Joffrey Ballet School, where she trained as a
ballet dancer until a knee injury closed this career path. As Theron
recalled in 2008,I went to New York for three days to model, and then I
spent a winter in New York in a friends windowless basement apartment. I
was broke, I was taking class at the Joffrey Ballet, and my knees gave
out. I realized I couldnt 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."
At
Theron flew to Los Angeles, on a one-way ticket her mother bought her,
intending now to work in the movie industry.During her early months
there, she went to a Hollywood Boulevard bank to cash a check her mother
had sent her to help with the rent When the teller refused to cash it,
Theron engaged in a shouting match with him. Upon seeing this, talent
agent John Crosby, in line behind her, handed her his business card and
subsequently introduced her to casting agents and also an acting
school.She later fired him as her manager after he kept sending her
scripts for films similar to Showgirls and Species After several months
in the city, she was cast in her first film role, a non-speaking role in
the direct-to-video film Children of the Corn III (1995).[Her first
speaking role was a supporting but significant and attention-garnering
part as a hitwoman in 2 Days in the Valley (1996).Larger roles in widely
released Hollywood films followed, and her career expanded in the late
1990s with box-office successes like The Devils Advocate (1997), Mighty
Joe Young (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999).She was on the cover
of the January 1999 issue of Vanity Fair as the "White Hot Venus". She
also appeared on the cover of the May 1999 issue of Playboy magazine.
However, the nude photos inside the issue had been taken several years
earlier before she became famous and Theron unsuccessfully sued the
magazine for publishing the photos without her consent.She starred in
four films in 2000 – Reindeer Games, The Yards, The Legend of Bagger
Vance and Men of Honor – and was briefly considered a new It girl.
Theron has said of this period in her career that, "I kept finding
myself in a place where directors would back me but studios didnt. [I
began] a love affair with directors, the ones I really, truly admired. I
found myself making really bad movies, too. Reindeer Games was not a
good movie, but I did it because I loved John Frankenheimer."
After appearing in
other films, Theron starred as
serial killer Aileen Wuornos in
Monster (2003). Film critic Roger
Ebert called it "one of the
greatest performances in the
history of the cinema". For this
role, Theron won the Academy Award
for Best Actress at the 76th
Academy Awards in February 2004,
as well as the Screen Actors Guild
Award and the Golden Globe Award.
She is the first South African to
win an Oscar for Best Actress. The
Oscar win pushed her to The
Hollywood Reporters 2006 list of
highest-paid actresses in
Hollywood earning US$10 million
for both her subsequent films,
North Country and Aeon Flux, she
ranked seventh, behind Halle
Berry, Cameron Diaz, Drew
Barrymore, Renée Zellweger, Reese
Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.
AskMen also named her the number
one most desirable woman of 2003.
In 2005, Theron portrayed Rita,
Michael Bluths (Jason Bateman)
love interest, on the third season
of Foxs critically acclaimed
television series Arrested
Development. She also received
Golden Globe Award and Primetime
Emmy Award nominations for her
role of Britt Ekland in the 2004
HBO film The Life and Death of
Peter Sellers. On 30 September,
Theron received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. In the
same year, she starred in the
financially unsuccessful science
fiction thriller Aeon Flux. She
also received the 2005 Spike Video
Game Award for Best Performance by
a Human Female for her voiceover
work in the Aeon Flux video game.
Theron received Best Actress
Academy Award and Golden Globe
Award nominations for her lead
performance in the drama North
Country. Ms. magazine also
honoured her for this performance
with a feature article in its Fall
2005 issue. She was supposed to
star in the screen adaption of the
short story The Ice at the Bottom
of the World by Mark Richard, and
it was to be directed by Kimberly
Peirce and produced by Therons
company Denver and Delilah Films
(Therons two dogs names). Theron
has owned the rights for many
years. She was also supposed to
star in a movie adaption of the
graphic novel Jinx, but neither
project has been produced yet.
In
2008, Theron was named the Hasty
Pudding Theatricals Woman of the
Year. That year she also starred
with Will Smith in the superhero
film Hancock, and in late 2008 she
was asked to be a UN Messenger of
Peace by the UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon.
In October 2009,
Theron was cast to star in a
sequel to the Mad Max films,
titled Mad Max: Fury Road.
On 4
December 2009, Theron co-presented
the draw for the 2010 FIFA World
Cup in Cape Town, South Africa,
accompanied by several other
celebrities of South African
nationality or ancestry. During
rehearsals she drew an Ireland
ball instead of France as a joke
at the expense of FIFA, referring
to Thierry Henrys handball
controversy in the play-off match
between France and Ireland. The
stunt alarmed FIFA enough for it
to fear she might do it again in
front of a live global audience.
Following a three-year hiatus from
the big screen, Theron returned to
the spotlight in 2011 with Young
Adult. Directed by Jason Reitman,
the film earned critical acclaim
especially for Therons
performance. She was nominated for
a Golden Globe Award and several
other high profile awards. Theron
played the Wicked Queen in the
film Snow White & the Huntsman,
which began production in 2011 and
was released in 2012.
Personal life
Theron has
a son, Jackson, whose adoption was
announced in March 2012. She lives
in Los Angeles. Theron became a
naturalised citizen of the United
States in May 2007, while
retaining her South African
citizenship.
In the mid-1990s, Theron had a two-year relationship with actor Craig Bierko. From 1997 to 2001, she dated Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins. Theron then began a relationship with Irish actor Stuart Townsend, with whom she starred in Trapped (2002) and Head in the Clouds (2004).Theron and Townsend separated in January 2010 after nearly nine years together. As of February 2014 she is dating actor Sean Penn.
Health concerns
While filming Aeon Flux in Berlin, Germany, Theron suffered a herniated disc in her neck, caused by a fall while filming a series of back handsprings. This required her to wear a neck brace for a month. In
July 2009, Theron was diagnosed with a serious stomach virus, thought
to be contracted while travelling outside the United States. When filming The Road, Theron injured her vocal cords during the labour screaming scenes.
Promotional deals
Having signed a deal
with John Galliano in 2004, Theron
replaced Estonian model Tiiu Kuik
as the spokeswoman in the "Jadore"
advertisements by Christian Dior.
Activism
The Charlize Theron Africa
Outreach Project (CTAOP) was
created in 2007 by Charlize
Theron, Academy Award winning
actor and UN Messenger of Peace,
in an effort to support African
youth in the fight against
HIV/AIDS. CTAOPs mission is to
help keep African youth safe from
HIV/AIDS. The Project is committed
to supporting community-engaged
organizations that address the key
drivers of the disease. Although
the geographic scope of CTAOP is
Sub-Saharan Africa, the primary
concentration has mostly been
Charlizes home country of South
Africa. CTAOPs approach is based
on the belief that community-based
organizations on the ground
understand the social and
structural relationships of their
communities better than anyone. By
supporting these organizations
through grant giving, networking,
and spotlighting their work, CTAOP
enables communities to mobilize
and empower themselves to prevent
HIV.
In December 2009, CTAOP and
TOMS Shoes partnered to create a
limited edition unisex shoe. The
shoe was made from vegan materials
and inspired by the African baobab
tree, the silhouette of which was
embroidered on blue and orange
canvas. Ten-thousand pairs were
given to destitute children, and a
portion of the proceeds went to
CTAOP.
Theron is involved in
womens rights organisations, and
has marched in pro-choice rallies.
Theron also is a supporter of
animal rights and active member of
PETA. She appeared in a PETA ad
for its anti-fur campaign.
I dont
want to get married because right
now the institution of marriage
feels very one-sided, and I want
to live in a country where we all
have equal rights...
