The life Charlize Theron, 51, has lived should, strictly speaking, never have become a success story. A difficult childhood in South Africa marked by illness and tragedy could have sent her life in an entirely different direction. But she had the courage to break away and pursue success in Hollywood. This year, she crowned her career with the role of the nymph Calypso in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster The Odyssey.
The Nymph of Ogygia
The story of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home from the Trojan War to the island of Ithaca has held a unique place in world literature for centuries. A heroic epic that British star director Christopher Nolan simply could not ignore. It was a story he felt compelled to bring to the screen. A bold undertaking, considering that countless experts of varying degrees of expertise would inevitably have an opinion on how successfully he managed to retell Homer’s 2,700-year-old story.
Not least because Nolan’s artistic choices and casting were almost automatically met with sharp criticism for being a little too woke. And a little too focused on securing the coveted Oscar nominations, which include diversity standards relating to ethnicity. Among other things, many have taken issue with Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o playing the roles of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra in the film. For some, this clashes with their perception of Greek mythology and, in particular, The Odyssey as a “white” story.
On one point, however, Christopher Nolan appears to have struck the right note. Charlize Theron has received considerable praise for her portrayal of the nymph Calypso, who keeps Odysseus captive on the island of Ogygia for seven years while attempting to entice him with the promise of eternal life if he agrees to become her husband. As we know, he cannot let go of his longing for his wife, Penelope. And Calypso is forced to set him free.
The Tragedy
Over the past 30 years, Charlize Theron has played major and minor roles in a long list of critically acclaimed films. These include The Cider House Rules (1999), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) and, most notably, her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003). The role earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
But there was certainly little to suggest that, at the age of 29, she would be standing with an Oscar in her hands as proof of being named the year’s best actress. First and foremost, her childhood in South Africa was marked by illness. As a child, she suffered from jaundice. Repeated courses of antibiotics caused her upper front teeth to rot, and they had to be surgically removed. One consequence of the procedure was that her permanent teeth did not develop until relatively late. She never felt at home at school and was often teased by the girls in her class.
In an interview with The New York Times, she said: “I grew up as an only child in South Africa, and there was turmoil in my family, but the surroundings were so amazing. I usually ran around barefoot. There were no Game Boys, no computers, no concerts. I had to entertain myself.”
The turmoil Charlize Theron referred to was largely caused by her parents. Her father was a severe alcoholic. And when she was 15 years old, the unthinkable happened. He attacked her mother and fired a shot at her and Charlize. To defend herself and her daughter, her mother retrieved her own gun. She shot and killed her husband. It was ruled self-defence, and her mother was never charged with a crime.
The Beginning of Her Career
Two years before the family tragedy, Charlize Theron had already started attending boarding school and had also begun studying at the National School of Arts in Johannesburg. Her difficult childhood was behind her. And her teenage years revealed an exceptionally beautiful young woman who saw herself as a future ballerina. Her career, however, first took her to Italy, where at the age of 16 she won a one-year modelling contract. The following year, she travelled to New York, where she pursued her ballet dream in earnest at the Joffrey Ballet School. Ballet, however, was not to be her future.
“I spent a winter in New York in a friend’s windowless basement apartment. I was broke, I was taking classes at Joffrey Ballet, and then my knees gave out. I couldn’t dance anymore, and I went into a serious depression. My mother came over from South Africa and said: ‘Either you figure out what you’re going to do now, or you come home, because you can sulk in South Africa.'" Instead, she bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles. And once again, chance played a part in opening the doors of Hollywood for the aspiring actress.
Her mother regularly sent her cheques so she had enough money to get by. But one day, a bank refused to cash a cheque because it had been issued in another state and because Charlize Theron was not a US citizen. She pleaded with them to cash it. Without success. At least not until the next person in line took pity on her. He even gave her his business card. Fortunately for her, he was a talent scout named John Crosby.
He opened doors for her. First by helping her attend acting school and later by securing her first role in the film Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995). It was 20-year-old Charlize Theron’s first appearance on screen. But another horror film is generally regarded as her breakthrough: The Devil’s Advocate (1997).
Her first years were a tour de force through a series of Hollywood B-movies. But after the turn of the millennium, she began appearing alongside a host of other well-known actors in increasingly successful films. The culmination came with Monster (2003) and an Academy Award. At first, she was seriously concerned that winning an Oscar so early in her career would typecast her in particular roles in horror films and thrillers. But her subsequent career tells a very different story. Over the years, she has managed to secure a remarkably diverse range of roles, including Queen Ravenna in Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) and Libby Day in Dark Places (2015).
Her repertoire ranges from light comedies and thrillers to major dramas. Her success on screen has also provided a platform from which to support young Africans in the fight against AIDS and HIV. She is active in organisations campaigning for women’s rights. This was undoubtedly an issue close to her heart when she accepted the role of Megyn Kelly in Bombshell (2019), the story of three female journalists at Fox News who set out to expose numerous cases of sexual harassment committed by the network’s chief executive. The role also earned Charlize Theron another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Charlize Theron has become a character actress capable of delivering remarkable performances. As one critic put it: “An actress with the beauty of a fashion model.”
