Line #21 Creator/CharlizeTheron


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/charlize_theron.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Watching Charlize Theron fight has become one of the [[JustHereForGodzilla singular pleasures]] of contemporary American cinema, as close as we’re going to get to the endorphin rush of watching Creator/GeneKelly dance, or Creator/JudyGarland sing, or Creator/CharlieChaplin pantomime."''
4	-->-- ''[[http://archive.vn/FUp6J The New York Times]]''
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6	Charlize Theron (born 7 August 1975 in Benoni, UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica) is a South African-[=American=] actress and producer.
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8	She's from an Afrikaner family that included a military leader during UsefulNotes/TheSecondBoerWar, Danie Theron, and her ancestry includes Dutch as well as French and German. After working as a model in her teens, she took a one-way trip to UsefulNotes/LosAngeles in 1998 with the hope of getting into films. She played a non-speaking victim role in ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCornIIIUrbanHarvest'' but got attention as the ruthless girlfriend of Creator/JamesSpader in ''Film/TwoDaysInTheValley''; this marked the beginning of her tendency to play characters who get physically punished.
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10	After a string of major roles in not-entirely-unforgettable movies, she played serial killer Aileen Wuornos in ''Film/{{Monster}}'', for which she received mass acclaim (with one Creator/RogerEbert calling it "one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema") and numerous Best Actress awards, including a UsefulNotes/GoldenGlobe and UsefulNotes/AcademyAward. Since then, she's sought out complex and sometimes unsympathetic roles in quality pictures. She was highly praised for her work in ''Film/YoungAdult'' as as the {{jerkass}} protagonist Mavis Gary, and the fandom went wild when she shaved her head and went ActionGirl as Furiosa in ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', in which she was the SupportingProtagonist. Since ''Mad Max'' she's carved out a solid career in [[ActionGenre action films]], appearing as competent female badasses in ''Film/AtomicBlonde'', ''Film/TheOldGuard'', and multiple installments of ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious''.
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12	She has been active in supporting many causes, including fighting HIV/AIDS and LGBT+ rights. Theron has also adopted two daughters, and one has come out as transgender, with her unequivocal public support.
13	----
14	!!Filmography:
15
16	!!!Films
17
18	* 1995 ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCornIIIUrbanHarvest'' as Eli's follower (uncredited)
19	* 1996 ''Film/TwoDaysInTheValley'' as Helga Svelgen
20	* 1996 ''Film/ThatThingYouDo'' as Tina Powers
21	* 1997 ''Film/TheDevilsAdvocate'' as Mary Ann Lomax
22	* 1998 ''Film/{{Celebrity}}'' as Supermodel
23	* 1998 ''Film/MightyJoeYoung'' as Jill Young
24	* 1999 ''Film/TheAstronautsWife'' as Jillian Armacost
25	* 1999 ''Film/TheCiderHouseRules'' as Candy Kendall
26	* 2000 ''Film/ReindeerGames'' as Ashley Mercer
27	* 2000 ''Film/TheLegendOfBaggerVance'' as Adele Invergordon
28	* 2000 ''Film/MenOfHonor'' as Gwen Sunday
29	* 2001 ''Film/FifteenMinutes'' as Rose Hearn
30	* 2001 ''Film/TheCurseOfTheJadeScorpion'' as Laura Kensington
31	* 2003 ''Film/{{The Italian Job\|2003}}'' as Stella Bridger
32	* 2003 ''Film/{{Monster}}'' as Aileen Wuornos
33	* 2004 ''Film/HeadInTheClouds'' as Gilda Bessé
34	* 2004 ''Film/TheLifeAndDeathOfPeterSellers'' as Britt Ekland
35	* 2005 ''Film/NorthCountry'' as Josey Aimes
36	* 2005 ''Film/AeonFlux'' as Aeon Flux
37	* 2007 ''Film/InTheValleyOfElah'' as Det. Emily Sanders
38	* 2007 ''Film/BattleInSeattle'' as Ella
39	* 2008 ''Film/{{Hancock}}'' as Mary Embrey
40	* 2009 ''Film/TheRoad'' as Wife
41	* 2009 ''WesternAnimation/AstroBoy'' as Narrator (voice)
42	* 2011 ''Film/YoungAdult'' as Mavis Gary
43	* 2012 ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman'' as Queen Ravenna
44	** 2016 ''Film/TheHuntsmanWintersWar''
45	* 2012 ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' as Meredith Vickers
46	* 2014 ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest'' as Anna
47	* 2015 ''Literature/DarkPlaces'' as Libby Day
48	* 2015 ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' as Imperator Furiosa
49	* 2016 ''WesternAnimation/KuboAndTheTwoStrings'' as Monkey/[[spoiler:Sariatu]] (voice)
50	* 2017 ''Film/AtomicBlonde'' as Lorraine Broughton
51	* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' as Cipher
52	** 2017 ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious''
53	** 2021 ''Film/{{F9}}'' (aka ''F9: The Fast Saga'' or ''Fast and Furious 9'')
54	** 2023 ''Film/FastX''
55	* 2018 ''Film/{{Tully}}'' as Marlo Moreau
56	* 2018 ''Film/{{Gringo}}'' as Elaine Markinson
57	* 2019 ''[[WesternAnimation/TheAddamsFamily2019 The Addams Family]]'' as Morticia Addams (voice)
58	** 2021 ''[[WesternAnimation/TheAddamsFamily2 The Addams Family 2]]''
59	* 2019 ''Film/LongShot'' as Secretary of State Charlotte Fields
60	* 2019 ''Film/{{Bombshell\|2019}}'' as Megyn Kelly
61	* 2020 ''Film/TheOldGuard'' as Andromache of Scythia ("Andy")
62	* 2022 ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'' as [[spoiler:[[Characters/DoctorStrangeSupportingCharacters Clea]]]]
63	* 2022 ''Film/{{The School for Good and Evil\|2022}}'' as Lady Lesso
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65	!!!Television
66
67	* 2005 ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' as Rita Leeds
68	* 2006 ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' as Daniel's Mom/Mother/Waitress (voice)
69	* 2017 ''Series/TheOrville'' as Pria Lavesque
70	* 2020 ''Series/HomeMovieThePrincessBride'' as Fezzik
71	* 2022 ''Series/{{The Boys\|2019}}'' as the Stormfront actress in ''[[ShowWithinAShow Dawn of the Seven]]''
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73	!!Theron's works provide examples of:
74	* ActingInTheDark: She confessed that at some points in ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', she had no idea what she was actually filming.
75	* ActionGirl: She had previously played such roles since the title character in ''Film/AeonFlux'', but her major shift towards them started with Imperator Furiosa in ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad''. Others quickly followed, such as Lorraine Broughton from ''Film/AtomicBlonde'' and Andy from ''Film/TheOldGuard''.
76	* ActorAllusion: A scene in ''Film/AtomicBlonde'' has a bottle of Christian Dior perfume visible. Charlize has done endorsements for Dior since 2004.
77	* AwesomeDearBoy: [[invoked]] She says that her main motivation is the chance to work with people such as Creator/JohnFrankenheimer, Creator/RidleyScott, Creator/JasonReitman, Creator/DiabloCody, and Creator/GeorgeMiller.
78	* BeautyInversion:
79	** Her role in ''Film/{{Monster}}'', in which she gained weight and shaved her eyebrows, among other things, and which won her an [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]], is considered a poster child for this being used as OscarBait, although it's widely agreed that unlike many cases of this, she actually had the acting ability to back it up. Funnily enough, it was the project that got her the Dior endorsement deal.
80	** A less extreme example in ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman'', where she plays a queen who keeps herself young via magic, and her powers begin to fade, meaning she grows older and uglier as the story goes on, even [[spoiler: turning into a withered husk as she dies]].
81	* CareerResurrection: A slower build than some, but appearing prominently in ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman'' and ''{{Film/Prometheus}}'' in the same year helped establish a reputation as one of Hollywood's {{Action Girl}}s in TheNewTens. With ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', she won the critical acclaim that brought it about. Notably, she had been trying to develop ''Film/AtomicBlonde'' for years, and ''Mad Max'''s success helped guide it.
82	* CelebrityEndorsement: Famously appeared in Dior's "J'adore" {{perfume commercial}}s.
83	* ChronicallyKilledActor: She has died in a wide variety of ways throughout her career: [[Film/ChildrenOfTheCornIIIUrbanHarvest impaled by a giant plant demon]]; shot in the gut; [[Film/TheDevilsAdvocate committed suicide after being raped by Satan]]; died of cancer; [[Film/{{Monster}} executed by lethal injection]]; [[Film/ReindeerGames fallen from a great height]]; [[Film/{{Prometheus}} crushed to death by a spaceship falling on her]], etc. She's even died twice in the same [[Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman franchise]].
84	* CreatorChosenCasting: She was the only choice for the role of Mavis in ''Film/YoungAdult'', and although Patty Jenkins had been considering other actresses for ''Monster'', she offered the role to Charlize after seeing ''Film/TheDevilsAdvocate''.
85	* DarkAndTroubledPast: She has played quite a few characters who have this, Aileen Wuornos and Imperator Furiosa being the most glaring examples.
86	* DyeingForYourArt: [[invoked]]
87	** She put on over 20 pounds of weight, shaved off her eyebrows and wore prosthetic teeth while filming ''Film/{{Monster}}''.
88	** She also dyed her hair black to play the title character in ''Film/AeonFlux''.
89	** She also shaved her head to play Furiosa in ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', and did it again for re-shoots after it grew back. As a result, she had to wear a wig for ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest''.
90	** More recently, she put on nearly 50 pounds for her role in ''Film/{{Tully}}''.
91	* FakeAmerican: [[invoked]] She has yet to play someone who's actually South African (although her character in ''Film/MightyJoeYoung'' lives in Africa, she's American).[[note]]She grew up speaking Afrikaans and didn't become fluent in English until she relocated to the USA in her teens. She points out that since she learned English in America, she's never had to lose an Afrikaner accent.[[/note]]
92	* FakeBrit: She puts on a passable English accent for her role as Queen Ravenna.
93	* FanDisservice:
94	** She goes full frontal in ''Film/TheDevilsAdvocate'', but with her body absolutely covered in bloody cuts from having been raped by Satan himself, it's anything but titillating.
95	** In the very beginning of ''Film/AtomicBlonde'' she takes a bath...in ''iced water'', with bruises, cuts and scrapes all over her body. [[spoiler: It becomes clear later in the movie that this scene takes place chronologically towards the end of the story, after her character has battled through an epic stairway fight against multiple attackers.]]
96	* {{Fashionista}}: While not generally known as a model, she's the face of Christian Dior perfumes since the mid-2000s, "J'adore" especially.
97	* FunnyCharacterBoringActor: Inverted. Known for playing various dark characters, and she's found herself playing a lot of humorless Ice Queens in TheNewTens. In interviews she's very goofy, and claims that when she met Barack Obama, she accidentally invited him to a strip club. She also happily describes herself as a {{Gasshole}} on set.
98	* HiddenDepths: One of her lesser-known talents is that she can perfectly imitate a goat, due to growing up on a farm.
99	* LargeHam: In both ''Monster'' and ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman''.
100	* MethodActing: [[invoked]] Has said in interviews that she started out trying to do this, but found it too hard to keep up, especially in a film like ''Film/TheDevilsAdvocate'' where her character got so completely put through the wringer (and, it's implied, in the service of a fairly tacky story). By the time she made ''Monster'', she'd learned to lighten the atmosphere on set by making jokes (in fact, she later said that she would rather feel the character's emotions as she reads/performs them instead of this, and it's said to be the biggest reason why there was tension between her and frequently-method Creator/TomHardy during the making of ''Fury Road'').
101	* MoneyDearBoy: The Sony email hacks revealed that Creator/ChrisHemsworth was being paid $10 million to do ''Film/TheHuntsmanWintersWar''. Charlize refused to reprise her role unless she was paid the same amount. As she was a proven box office draw, she was granted this.
102	* MsFanservice: In some of her roles, such as ''Literature/TheCiderHouseRules'', ''Film/AeonFlux'', and ''Film/HeadInTheClouds''.
103	* NoStuntDouble:
104	** Despite injuring her neck while filming ''Film/AeonFlux'', she still continued to do her own stunts for the rest of the production.
105	** Ditto with ''Film/AtomicBlonde''. She did her own stunts and kept going while having horrible pains after breaking two teeth while filming a fight scene.[[note]]She broke them from [[TheKlutz baring and grinding them a lot]][[/note]]
106	* OldShame:
107	** She openly loathes her uncredited debut in ''Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest''.
108	** While she doesn't regret getting the chance to work with Creator/JohnFrankenheimer, like everybody else involved in ''Film/ReindeerGames'' she doesn't think much of the final film.
109	* PrettyInMink:
110	** In ''Film/MenOfHonor'', she was a {{socialite}} in a blue dress and brown mink stole. She invites Carl, who is aspiring to the first black American naval diver, to an all-white club, just for a lark. Sunday even notes her attire to ascertain her motives.
111	** In a 1999 issue of ''Vanity Fair'', which discussed Charlize as an up-and-coming actor, she did a FanserviceCover where she [[NakedInMink wore nothing but a full-length white fox coat]].
112	* PlayingAgainstType: Her comedic role in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' as childish {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Rita Leeds [[spoiler: who turns out to be mentally retarded,]] a marked stark contrast to her action or dramatic fare.
113	* RapeAsDrama: This happens to many of her characters. Joked in a press conference that she sometimes thinks that producers say of a character [[BlackComedy "Does she get raped and cry? Send it to Charlize."]]
114	* RealLifeWritesTheHairstyle: She wears a wig in ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest'', as she had shaved her head for ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad''.
115	* RetroactiveRecognition: [[invoked]] She is the girl in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4_ng0nJ4ec this]] popular 1998 Martini commercial.
116	* [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct She Really Can Act]]: [[invoked]] After being considered a bit of an "It" Girl for being perfectly fine in a string of generally forgettable films, she got this for ''Monster''. Creator/RogerEbert called her work [[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/monster-2003 one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema]], and admitted that having walked into the film after the opening credits, he didn't even realise it was her until he saw her name in the closing credits.
117	* StatuesqueStunner: At 5'10" she tends to tower over her castmates. Not that anyone's complaining.
118	* StuntCasting: She has a cameo AsHerself in ''Series/TheBoys2019'' playing Stormfront in the film within a film ''Dawn of the Seven'', since the real Stormfront's public image has been destroyed at this point, and the character is presented as the film's BigBad.
119	* ThrowItIn: In ''Monster'', she ad-libbed the memorable line "fuck you, Leslie".
120	* UnderageCasting: She was only 21 in ''Film/TheDevilsAdvocate'' playing the girlfriend of the 30-year-old Keanu Reeves, and strongly implied to be the same age.
121	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
122	** She was offered a part in ''Film/{{Showgirls}}'' but turned it down, not wanting to appear nude. She changed her mind by the time ''Film/TheDevilsAdvocate'' came along.
123	** She was meant to play Elizabeth Shaw in ''Prometheus'' but a scheduling conflict led her to drop out. When her schedule freed up, Noomi Rapace had been cast as Elizabeth - so Charlize played Meredith Vickers instead.
124	** She dropped out of ''J. Edgar'' to star in ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman''.
125	** She was approached to star in ''Film/{{Wonder Woman\|2017}}'', which would have reunited her with director Creator/PattyJenkins after ''Monster''. She turned the offer down, calling the fact of being asked to play Franchise/WonderWoman's mom (Queen Hippolyta) while she's just nine years older than Creator/GalGadot "a slap in the face. She ended up having a role in the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse rival superhero film franchise]] instead.

Context Creator / CharlizeTheron