Actress, mother, icon of author and action cinema, Charlize Theron celebrates her 50 years with pride and freedom. From South Africa to Hollywood, between Oscars, extreme roles and private life far from the spotlight, it tells a new phase without compromise.
Charlize Theron has just turned 50. And it could not be happier.
“I told my mother that I was looking forward and she replied: ‘Oh, honey, becomes even better when you get to 70!“He told with his usual smile a USA TODAY. “Certainly I feel I am lucky and equipped with excellent genes. I think I will fall well from here on“.
The genes, of course, but also an out of the ordinary mother. Gerda, passionate about Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson films, was the first to believe in his talent. It was she who bought her a one -way ticket for Los Angeles, when Charlize still dreamed of a future in dance and tried to break through between Europe and New York. “My father, on the other hand, loved Mad Max“He recalled. A curious detail, considering that many years later, in that post-apocalyptic world, would become the furious iconic.
Raised in Benoni, South Africa, in an isolated farm, the only daughter of Gerda and Charles Jacobus Theron, Charlize is artistically formed as a dancer, enrolling in dance as a child and then arriving at the Joffrey Ballet in New York. But cinema called it already then. “As a child I watched above all action movies – tells – And I added some drama like ‘Kramer against Kramer’ or ‘Sophie’s choice’“.
A formation that generated an actress without gender prejudices: intense and heartbreaking, ironic and sensual, or a cold machine to kill. Charlize Theron can be everything, and often it is. International fame arrives in 1997 with The devil’s lawyerwhere he plays the fragile wife of the young Keanu Reeves, an apprentice lawyer in the left study of Al Pacino. From then on, a crescendo: it is the sweet candy in The rules of the Casa del Sidro (1999), then a young terminal sick woman in Sweet November – Dolce Novemberagain alongside Reeves.
But it is Monster (2004) To consecrate it: to interpret Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who became serial killer after years of abuse, completely distorts his face. The performance is worth the Oscar for the best leading actress and the deserved label – of a chameleonic and courageous actress.
From there, the “difficult” roles are not counted: in North Country – Josey History (2005) is a single mother who undergoes harassment at work; in Bombshell – The voice of the scandal (2019) becomes Megyn Kelly, the journalist who faces Roger Ailes, a powerful Fox News CEO. A choice consistent with his real commitment: Charlize is the UN ambassador for the fight against violence against women.
But next to the dramatic force, Theron is also one of the few actresses to have conquered Hollywood with action movies. From Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) ad Atomic Blonde (2017), passing through Fast & Furious And The Old Guard. Just this fantasy-action on a group of warriors (almost) immortal has just returned to Netflix with a second chapter, produced and played by her. It was Theron himself who convinced Uma Thurman who returned to action movies, twenty years later Kill Bill.
At the première of Hollywood, last June, he arrived safe and measured, shielded by a precise eloquium and a plus step. But who knows it knows how self -deprecating is. In an episode of the Apple+ series The Studioproducer Seth Rogen is picked up at his party on the hills of Los Angeles, where there seems to be all Hollywood: from Martin Scorsese to Steve Buscemi.
And if today Charlize appears a woman totally at peace with herself, she is also also because she has learned not to live to please. “Last night I wore mesh stockings because I felt fantastic with those, and that’s where I’m going now; Of the series: I don’t give a damn. I have no more time to pretend to live my life for others“, He said to People.
In the podcast Call Her Daddyinterviewed by Alex Cooper, he said sincerely that he had just lived an adventure with a 26 year old: “a fantastic experience“.”I had three occasional meetings throughout my life! I should have done it more at twenty years“He added with a laugh.”I was married – that is, in a serious relationship – from the moment I started having relationships until my last relationship. Then I had the children. Which single mother does it have time for appointments? Shave, wax and make up? My thought is: I have two daughters to take to school“.
Notoriously single for several years, after important relationships with Sean Penn, Stuart Townsend, Craig Bierko and the singer Stephan Jenkins, today Charlize is the mother of two daughters: Jackson, 12 years old, and August, 9, adopted by very young and grown away from the spotlight. “They have no interest in what I do“, He joked with Jimmy Kimmel.”I consider myself quite humble, but every now and then I think: ‘cabbage, there is an Oscar right there’. And they? Not at all impressed“.
On the future in Hollywood, Charlize is optimistic. “The way women are represented has improved; The roles offered to the most mature women have expanded“He recently said. Already five years ago, at the San Diego Comic-Con reflect on this theme:”I was envious of De Niro and Jack Nicholson, who could interpret so devastated people. In the company survives a stereotyped vision of women, always represented in two extremes: Madonne or prostitutes. Our strength is in the middle and comes from our mistakes and our fragility“.
And perhaps it is precisely this awareness, this ability to explore every nuance of the human being, who make it so magnetic. To see her live, it is almost difficult to believe that she has played characters marked by trauma and violence. But it is she herself who explains the key to her work: “Even if not monster, my creativity is linked to my fears. They are my engine. I am not interested in characters of all -round heroines, but women who have survived, in which we can recognize ourselves“.
And at 50, Charlize Theron continues to tell this: the true, true, strength of those who survive – with grace, irony and no regrets.
