About Me
Charlize grew up on a small farm and took part in daily activities like milking cows. When she was 6 she started ballet and eventually excelled to the point where she performed the Nutcracker Suite and The Swan Lake. "Ballet taught me how to fantasize. That's what dance is about: You can be a princess, you can be anything. I became ridiculous. Other people's mothers would laugh at me because I was the biggest drama queen."From a young age, Charlize had an inherent passion for film, a passion that was hard to fulfill in a farm house with no VCR. Nearly driven to insanity by her constant begging, her parents purchased a VCR, thus introducing Charlize to American cinema and laying the foundation for her acting career.Acting was put on the back-burner, for Charlize was enrolled at a school for the performing arts in Johannesburg and her ballet career was flowering. She still had acting in the back of her mind though, and when time allowed she would try to sit in on acting classes. What happened next was tragic. Charlize witnessed her father in a drunken state, where he attacked both Charlice and her mother and threatened to kill them. In self defense, Charlize's mother shot Charles Theron. Charles died, but Charlize's mother was not charged with the crime.Before this traumatic incident, Charlize learned of a modeling contest at school that she decided to enter and won. One thing quickly lead to the next, and shortly after her father died, Charlize was offered a modeling contract in Milan, Italy. She would leave for Milan and pursue modeling for a while, but she did not fare as well as expected. Eventually, Charlize was flown to the New York for a fashion spread, and rather than going back to Milan, she decided to stay in the U.S. and start a new life.Charlize went back to her love of dancing and performed ballet with New York's Joffrey Ballet. Unfortunately, she was forced to quit ballet when a serious knee injury forced her to end her ballet career. Her Mom decided it was time to try something new and sent an 18yr old Charize to Los Angeles so she could try her hand in acting.As a foreigner with a heavy Afrikaaner accent, making a life for herself in LA was difficult. However, after 2 weeks she was spotted by an agent who noticed her fiery spirit when she was arguing with a bank teller. He was drawn to her energy, and also noticed her sultry looks and long ballet legs. The agent took her under his wing, but insisted that she would have to lose her accent. Charlice worked diligently to lose the accent by watching American movies and singing to American songs. In 1996 Charlize landed her breakout role of Helga in 2 Days in the Valley . . . the rest is history.
