When you watch Charlize Theron on the silver screen, the luminous star looks like she was born to be there. But this accomplished talent had an interesting life before acting.
Though Theron developed a love for animals on the farm she was raised on near Johannesburg, South Africa, her first love was ballet. She began taking lessons when she was 6, but her ballerina dreams were put on hold at age 16 when she won a modeling contest that led to a contract and the runways of Milan. Finding only moderate success there, she headed to New York and refocused on dance, training with the Joffrey Ballet until a knee injury dashed any hopes of a ballet career. Unsure of what to do next, Theron took her mother’s advice (and the offer of one-way airfare) and moved to Los Angeles, where events took another strange turn. A talent agent overheard Theron railing at a bank teller for refusing to cash a check from her mother and was impressed enough to give her his card and eventually introduce her to casting agents.
While Theron’s dazzling looks would have made it easy for her to land roles in teen comedies or slasher flicks, she took the indie route, working with respected filmmakers such as Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules), Woody Allen (Celebrity), and Niki Caro (North Country). And while many actresses her age were trying to build buzz via paparazzi photo ops, Theron was taking notes from her directors and producers. Today, Theron has an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her performance in 2003’s Monster, and she has produced three films.
Theron talks about her childhood and her relationship with her mother, her passion for performing, and the qualities she searches for when evaluating new projects.
What was it like growing up in South Africa?
Incredible! I feel extremely fortunate to have had that childhood. It’s something I’d like to re-create for my children one day. Growing up in South Africa, you learn at an early age that you should have respect for wildlife. I cried the first time I went to a zoo, because I grew up with wildlife in their natural habitat.
Do you have any favorite memories of your childhood there?
I grew up as an only child on a farm, and my parents had a construction company. So I had to entertain myself. I didn’t have dolls. I had pet goats. My first pet goat had a huge impact on me. He was saved by my dad, who found him caught in a poacher’s snare. He grew up with me, slept in my room, jumped on beds with me, did mischievous things with me. It was an incredible friendship. After that, I always had sop [bottle-fed] lambs in the house. My mom was like this Dian Fossey character, always helping with births and stuff like that. All of the crippled ones always ended up with us. We had one sop lamb that couldn’t bend its legs, so we called it Pinocchio. My mom literally taught this lamb how to walk.
Sounds like she was a great inspiration to you.
When my dad passed away, my mom was left in a position where every bank was on her back, but she refused to give up. She was thrown into the deep end and had to learn how to swim very quickly. She had a certain amount of pride and simply would not allow herself to fail. It was amazing: In five years, she built up a company that had been in the red to become one of the most successful construction businesses in South Africa. When you witness something like that, it makes you realize that sometimes life deals you bad cards and you’ve got to learn to deal them right back. She always encouraged me to not just do what everyone else says you have to do and to try things that are impossible.
Wasn’t it your mom who originally convinced you to give acting a try?
She didn’t have to talk me into it. It was obvious that I loved films, but I had no idea how to become an actor. It took me until I was eighteen, when I stopped dancing because of a knee injury. I realized that it wasn’t the dancing I loved so much, but the performing. I loved being on stage, putting on the makeup and being a character. I was in New York at the time, seeing agents, but my mom was the one who said, “Go to L.A.!”
As a former model, was it initially diffi cult for you to be taken seriously as an actress?
I can’t change the way I look, nor can I sit back and let that rule my life when I know in my heart that I’m a real girl. It’s just utter nonsense, this ideology that women who are pretty don’t feel, don’t have pain, or don’t understand human conflict, because everything’s just so dandy for them. Instead of sitting back and crying about it, I just had to believe that there would be somebody out there who would believe in me enough to take a chance.
As an actor and producer, what are the primary factors you look for in a project?
I try not to think of it as a formulaic process. I read a lot of scripts and try to go for a pure reaction. I don’t think you can make decisions like, “I can’t play a gay character again, because I’ve done that!” It’s not that mechanical. It’s about what affects me. Having empathy and understanding for a character is one thing, but I want to be moved.
What do you look for in directors?
They need to be passionate, and they need to understand the craft of filmmaking. I think the lesson that I’ve learned in my short career is that you can’t spend enough time with a director to make sure that they completely comprehend what they have in their hands.
I think it’s great to be a director with a strong vision if it’s a good vision. There are a few directors in this industry that are known for not necessarily being very collaborative, but when you look at their work, you know that he or she really knows what they’re doing. It might not be the kind of work environment you want to enter into, and I think as an actor or producer you have to know going into it what that relationship is gonna be.
Do you find the filmmaking process noticeably different when working with actors-turned-directors like Tom Hanks and Robert Redford?
Oh, yeah. There are certain things that just naturally happen when you work with a director who is an actor. They have an instinct about what’s going on with you as an actor when you’re struggling with something. It’s easier for them to understand exactly what that’s like, so they can articulate what it is they need from you or what you need to do in order to make it work. That can also be one of the scariest things about working with a director who is an actor: They know exactly what’s going on, so you can’t hide anything from them.
Do you have any aspirations to direct in the future?
I don’t know what the future holds! [Laughs.] If you’d asked me ten years ago if I would produce, I would’ve probably said no, but I think my passion is always growing and changing. I know that I want to do things where I feel like I can actually bring something to the table. That was very important to me when I started producing, which was something I felt like I had enough knowledge to do. As a director, I don’t feel that right now, because there’s more for me to learn. But I’m happy with where I am today.
How do you manage to stay so passionate about your work?
I think your passion evolves, but the core of it is just that it feels right. It’s not that it’s effortless or even easy for me, but the things that other people consider hard feel good to me. I’ve never wanted to just show up, hit my mark, and say my lines. I have a sincere interest in and fascination with how you actually make a film. To other people, that might sound really ridiculous, but to me it’s compelling. I guess we all just have that thing that drives us, and for me, this has always been something that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning. That’s what I’m usually guided by: The day I don’t want to get out of bed to do something, I’ll stop. Life’s too short to do something you don’t enjoy.
Are there any downsides to your success, things that perhaps steal some of your joy?
To be honest, I don’t feel like I have anything to gripe about. Things are so good right now that I’d sound obnoxious if I complained about anything. I’m finally in a place where I have the option of going out on a limb and doing different things, and I love it. Being able to challenge myself makes me feel like I’m alive.
Bret Love is an entertainment journalist. He lives in Atlanta.
Photography by Kwaku Alston/Corbis Outline
