An argument with a bank teller launched Charlize Theron's Hollywood career
In Los Angeles in 1994, broke and living in a motel, Theron was pleading with a bank clerk to cash her mother's out-of-state rent cheque. The man behind her in the queue, talent agent John Crosby, cashed it himself and handed her his card. Within a decade she held an Oscar.
Theron was born on 7 August 1975 in Benoni, near Johannesburg, the only child of two road builders, and grew up on the family farm speaking Afrikaans as her first language. Childhood was hard: frequent jaundice, teasing at school, and a father who drank. In June 1991, when she was 15, he attacked her mother and fired a gun at them both; her mother shot back and killed him, and the courts judged it self-defence.
She thought of herself as a dancer. At 16 she won a modelling contract in Salerno, worked around Europe for a year, then trained at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York until her knees failed. Depressed and broke in a basement flat, she got an ultimatum from her mother: decide what comes next, or sulk at home. A one-way ticket to Los Angeles and a $300 budget followed; she has admitted taking bread from restaurant baskets to eat.
Crosby steered her to acting classes. After a silent part in a horror sequel, her first speaking role, a hitwoman in 2 Days in the Valley, drew notice, but she refused to keep replaying it. Agent J. J. Harris, whom she calls her mentor, pushed her across genres and toward producing. The Devil's Advocate in 1997 was her breakout, and she later chose several weak films simply to work with directors she admired, such as John Frankenheimer.
Monster changed everything. Playing Aileen Wuornos, executed in Florida in 2002, earned Roger Ebert's praise as one of cinema's great performances and the Best Actress Oscar in February 2004, a first for a South African. North Country brought another nomination, and action hits from Mad Max: Fury Road to Atomic Blonde made her one of the best-paid actresses anywhere. Through Denver and Delilah Productions she now produces too, and she took American citizenship in 2007 while keeping her South African passport.
Source: Charlize Theron
