Top 10 Amazing Facts about Charlize Theron 

Charlize Theron. Photo By Gage –Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Amazing Facts about Charlize Theron 

Charlize Theron is one of the world’s highest-paid actresses, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award. 

Theron works in film production with her company Denver and Delilah Productions. She has produced numerous films, in many of which she had a starring role, including The Burning Plain (2008), Dark Places (2015), and Long Shot (2019). 

Here are 10 amazing facts about Charlize Theron 

1. Charlize Was Raised on a Farm 

Theron was born on 7th August 1975 in Benoni near Johannesburg in South Africa. She grew up on her parents’ farm at Benoni in then Transvaal Province, which is today’s, Gauteng Province. She grew up feeding livestock and taking care of animals. 

Charlize was the only child born to her parents Gerda and Charles Theron. She is from an Afrikaner family, and her ancestry includes Dutch as well as French and German.  

Growing up on a farm with animals has made her an advocate for animal rights. She even posed for a PETA campaign ad that was anti-fur, and she posed next to her dog. 

2. Her Mother Shot and Killed Her Father in Self Defense 

A red-carpet pose. Photo By Charlize Wikimedia Commons

When Charlize was 15 years old, on 21st June 1991, her father, threatened both Charlize and her mother while drunk. He was an alcoholic. That fateful day he physically attacked his wife and child and even fired a gun at them. 

In a bid to protect her child and herself, Theron’s mother retrieved her handgun, shot back, and killed him. The shooting was legally adjudged to have been self-defense, and her mother faced no charges. 

After her mother killed her father, Theron told her friends that her dad died in a car accident. She didn’t want people to know how truly bad her family situation had been. Today, Charlize does not try to hide this truth but prefers not to speak of it. 

3. Charlize’s First Language is Afrikaans 

Charlize is Bi- lingual. Although this actress is fluent in English, her first language is Afrikaans, a South African dialect that is borrowed from Dutch.  

She says that she learned to speak English by watching soap operas on television. 

4. She Was Discovered at a Bank 

When Theron was 19, she was at a bank in Los Angeles, trying to get money out of a South African account. She was having trouble accessing her money, so she got into an argument with the bank teller. 

This caused a scene and forced a man named John Crosby to notice her. He was the next customer behind her.  He was a manager and approached Theron after to ask if she needed an agent in the film industry. Meeting Crosby helped Theron get her first role in Children of the Corn III. 

5. She is a Mother of Two Children 

Charlie Theron. Photo By Gage Skidmore – Wikimedia Commons

Though not her biological children, Charlize has adopted two children. She has been interested in adoption since childhood. Later, she became aware of orphanages and the overflowing numbers of children in them.  

She adopted her 1st daughter Jackson in March 2012. In 2019, she revealed that Jackson, who by then was seven years old, is transgender. In July 2015, she adopted another daughter whose name is August. 

She said her daughters were born who they are and where they find themselves in this world as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for her to decide. 

6. She Has Dual Citizenship 

At 16yrs, Charlize moved with her mother from South Africa to Milan in Italy where she modeled for a year. After that, she and her mother moved to the US, both New York City and Miami. 

In New York, she attended the Joffrey Ballet School, where she trained as a ballet dancer until a knee injury closed that career path. She flew to Los Angeles, on a one-way ticket her mother bought for her, intending to work in the film industry. 

She got into the industry and became successful. Charlize became an American citizen in 2007 when she was 32 years. She retained her South African citizenship. 

7. Nelson Mandela Threw Her a Party  

She won an Academy Award as well as a Golden Globe for her performance in 2003’s Monster, where she played the part of a serial killer Aileen Wuornos.  

After the win, Theron was invited back home to South Africa by the late president Nelson Mandela. He threw her a huge party, hugged her, and thanked her for bringing attention to their country. Charlize broke into tears. 

8. She’s on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame 

Charlize Theron. Photo By Fuzheado – Wikimedia Commons

Charlize was honored with a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on 29th September 2005. 

9. Charlize Was Named a UN Messenger of Peace 

In 2008, Theron was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. 

He commended Charlize for consistently dedicating herself to improving the lives of women and children in South Africa. She was committed to preventing and stopping violence against women and girls. 

She recorded a public service announcement in 2014 as part of the UN’s Stop Rape Now program. 

10. Charlize Has a Charity Program to Fight Against HIV/AIDS 

Charlize Theron By Gage –Wikimedia Commons

This Actress created ‘The Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project’ (CTAOP) in 2007 to support African youth in the fight against HIV/AIDS.  

The project is committed to supporting community-engaged organizations that address the key drivers of the disease. Although the geographic scope of CTAOP is in Sub-Saharan Africa, the primary concentration has mostly been Charlize’s home country of South Africa.

There are other random facts about Charlize. Did you know that she went to therapy in her thirties because of anger? She discovered that it was due to her frustration growing up during South Africa’s apartheid era, which ended when she was 15yrs.

When she was young, she was treated with antibiotics that made her upper incisor milk teeth rot and they had to be surgically removed.

She had to add weight for her role as Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s Monster and she had to shave her hair for her role in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’