Charlize Theron
was born in Benoni, a little farming community outside Johannesburg,
South Africa on August 7th, 1975. Her mother, Gerda, is German,
while her late father, Charles, was French (she was named after her
him).
Charlize began her modeling career in 1991, at 16, when she won a
local modeling contest. She started modeling in Europe, and came to
New York a year later. She didn't like being a model though, and
decided to try her luck with ballet, which had been her biggest
passion as a child. Unfortunately, a knee injury prevented her from
dancing. Her mother bought her a one-way ticket to Los Angeles in
1994, and Charlize started visiting all of the agents on Hollywood
Bulevard, but without any luck. She went to the bank to cash a check
for $500 she'd gotten from her mother, and became furious when she
learned that the bank could not cash her check because it was an
out-state check. She made a scene, and an agent gave her his card,
in exchange that she learn the language, which she did by watching
soap operas on TV. Her first role was as a young mother in a park in
a B-film in 1995, but it was a non-speaking role with three seconds
of screen time. Her next role was as Helga in 2 Days in the Valley
(1996), which landed her the role of Tina in That Thing You Do!
(1996). Since then, she has starred in movies like The Devil's
Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), The Cider House Rules
(1999), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) and The Italian Job
(2003). An important day in her life was February 29th, 2004, when
she was awarded with her first Academy Award for her performance in
Monster (2003). |
 |