Charlize Theron is a superstar model, dancer, fighter, and actress from South Africa. She has been in several box-office hits, including Monster, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Atomic Blonde. Here are 42 kickass facts about the intimidating beauty.
Charlize Theron was born in Benoni, South Africa on August 7th, 1975. Her parents, Charles and Gerda, both owned a road construction company together, and the family lived on a farm. Theron grew up feeding livestock and taking care of animals.
When she was a baby, Theron had jaundice, and the doctors put her on antibiotics. Her baby teeth rotted because of the medicine, so she did not have a normal set of teeth until she was 11 years old and her adult teeth grew in.
When she was a little girl, every time she looked at a world map, Theron saw that South Africa was "at the bottom of the world." It made her feel as though she was missing out on seeing so many great places. From a young age, she knew she wanted to travel.
Theron began taking ballet lessons when she was six years old. She quickly grew to love it, and by the time she turned 12, she went to a special boarding school in Johannesburg in order to study dance on a daily basis.
When she turned 16, Theron won a modeling contest, which gave her the chance to fly to Italy and enter another competition. She started working in New York City as a fashion model until she turned 18.
At 18 years old, Theron decided she was going to go after her lifelong dream of being a ballerina, and she started studying dance at the Joffrey Ballet School. However, she injured her knee so badly that she was not able to go pro.
When Theron was 19, she was at a bank in Los Angeles, trying to get money out of a South African account. She was having trouble accessing her money, so she got into an argument with the bank teller. This caused a scene and forced a man named John Crosby to notice her. He was a manager, and approached Theron after to ask if she needed an agent. Meeting Crosby helped Theron get her first role in Children of the Corn III.
Theron was in several starring roles in movies for a few years, but the film that really made her internationally famous was 2003's Monster, where she played the part of a serial killer Aileen Wuornos. She won an Academy Award as well as a Golden Globe for her performance.
After she won the Oscar, Theron was invited back home to South Africa by Nelson Mandela. He threw her a huge party, gave her a hug, and thanked her for bringing attention to their country. She started crying.
Theron was so devoted to the part of Aileen Wuornos that she gained over 30 pounds in order to look more like her. The producers of the movie got access to letters and diaries written by Wuornos, which Theron also studied in order to better understand her character.
In magazines around the world, Theron has been voted "Sexiest Woman Alive," "Most Desirable," and the list goes on. Even Victoria's Secret put her on the "What is Sexy" list as "Sexiest Actress" in 2012.
Theron did almost all of her own stunts in Atomic Blonde. She trained with eight different personal trainers in order to prepare. She also decided to hang around with Keanu Reeves, because he was training for John Wick: Chapter 2, and she wanted to see if there were any pointers she could learn from him.
One day when Charlize was 15 years old, her father started violently attacking her and her mother, Gerda. Gerda, who felt Charles was going to kill them both, shot and killed Charles in self defense in front of Charlize.
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