Marshall Julius profiles the fascinating life and brilliant career of the gorgeous and talented Charlize Theron, star of Xtra-vision exclusive, The Burning Plain.
Charlize Theron is, without question, one of the most beautiful women on the face of the planet, a glamorous Hollywood star routinely voted the sexiest girl alive, but if you scratch that immaculate surface, what lies beneath is a gifted, Oscar-winning actress with a remarkably well-developed chameleon-like quality to inhabit an eclectic variety of characters.
"Looks alone won't get you that far," says Theron. "It may get you in the door, but there's always somebody younger, somebody prettier. You have to rely on something else."
Theron is the real deal, the complete package, and she’s back on our screens in The Burning Plain, a romantic mystery from debut director Guillermo Arriaga, the internationally acclaimed writer of Babel and 21 Grams. Co-starring Kim Basinger, it’s a tale of passion, fate and forbidden love, a scorching drama available exclusively from Xtra-vision.
Born in Benoni, a city in the greater Johannesburg-area, South Africa, on August 7, 1975, Theron grew up on a farm, an only child with a French mother and a German father. At home they spoke Afrikaans, but Charlize quickly learned English by watching American TV. Never one to sit back and wait for things to happen to her, Theron learned early on to make the most of every moment.
"I was five years old and we were driving," she remembers. "All the cars stopped because a truck had rolled over and was ablaze. The doors were jammed and there was a man trapped inside. In South Africa everybody carries a weapon, and the man begged for someone to shoot him because he didn't want to burn to death. Nobody could get him out of the cab, so somebody shot him. It was horrific, but definitely a moment that made me have a great value for life. It taught me not to take a moment for granted."
As her father drank, Theron grew up much closer to her mother. "She was an incredible example to me," she says. "I can't imagine going through life without her. She has influenced who I am, but without intent really. She would always say, 'That's how I feel, but you should figure it out for yourself.' I think of my life now and I realise that the way I was brought up is why I can deal with so much now. I'm responsible for my own actions, my own decisions."
When Charlize was 15 she witnessed her abusive alcoholic father attacking her mother, who shot him in self-defense. Though he died, she wasn’t charged. "People drank, you know," says Charlize, matter-of-factly. "It was just the way it was."
Theron left the farm when she was 16 after winning a local modeling contest, the prize being a one-year contract to tread the catwalks of Milan. Moving to the States the following year, she won a scholarship to study ballet at the Joffrey School in New York, but a knee injury soon halted her dreams of a dancing career. At 18, she was encouraged to try acting by her mother, who bought her a one-way ticket to Los Angeles. After two weeks in the city she was discovered by a Hollywood agent after shouting at a bank teller for refusing to cash a cheque.
Six months later Theron got her first part in a movie, Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995), though she didn’t have any lines and was only on screen for three seconds. The following year she made a lasting impression in crime thriller 2 Days in the Valley (1996) and comedy That Thing You Do! (1996), building on those early successes with roles in films as well known as The Devil’s Advocate (1997), The Cider House Rules (1999), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) and The Italian Job (2003).
Eager to be perceived as more than a pretty face, Theron gained 30lbs to play prostitute and serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s Monster, a role which film critic Roger Ebert applauded as "one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema". Winning a stack of awards for her efforts, Theron made movie history as the first African to win a Best Actress Oscar, returning to South Africa a hero. As the guest of honour at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg in March 2004, she was welcomed by the former President, who praised her for putting their country on the map, and later gave her a hug.
"I've always been very proud to be a South African and I've always been very honest to people about that," she told the crowd. "Whatever I can do in my power I promise you I will. I don't think it's too much pressure. I think it's our duty as citizens of this country. You don't have to win an Oscar to do something good for your country. We all can do that. If I can be an encouragement for that I'll be glad."
Theron’s Oscar win propelled her into the ranks of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses, earning a whopping $10 million for subsequent movies Aeon Flux (2005), which wasn’t so great, and North Country (2005), which saw her nominated for a second Best Actress Academy Award.
In her private life, Theron has dated Irish actor Stuart Townsend since August 2001, but like Brad Pitt and Sarah Silverman has said that she will not marry until same-sex couples are able to have their marriages recognised. "I'm happy for people who want to get married," she explained, "but it's not my thing. I'm extremely happy in my relationship and I would love to have kids."
"We didn’t have a ceremony," adds Townsend. "I don't need a certificate or the state or the church to say otherwise, but I consider her my wife and she considers me her husband."
Awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September 2005, Charlize announced in 2008 that she is now a United States citizen. Though it’s unlikely Mandela approves, certainly Theron seems happy. "I try to live my life in as good and authentic a way as possible," says the actress who’ll next be seen in post-apocalyptic sci fi thriller The Road (2009). "I enjoy life, travel, adventure. I enjoy my friends and my love, and if it’s all gone tomorrow, like that man who died so horribly in front of me when I was five, then I’ll have enjoyed a very good life."