Every major Hollywood star has a story to tell about when and where their career began. While many actors were discovered the traditional way during a casting, There are also much more special stories – such as that of Charlize Theron. Everyone knows her today through blockbusters like “Fast & Furious 8” or “Mad Max: Fury Road”, and her role as Aileen Wuornos in “Monster” (2003) earned her an Oscar. But In fact, the 48-year-old owes her career to pure chance.
Charlize Theron was born and raised near Johannesburg until she moved to Milan with her mother at the age of 16, where she began a modeling career. A year later she went to the US, where she trained as a ballet dancer, but a knee injury abruptly ended her dancing career.
In 1994, she found herself stranded in Los Angeles, with no prospects and only a few hundred dollars in her pocket to keep her head above water until she found a job. Above all, her precarious financial situation has paid off for Theron in a rather unexpected way…
Charlize Theron: “I begged and begged”
Theron was completely broke when she was denied a check at a bank. According to her own statement, she only had $300 and desperately needed money to pay for her hotel – otherwise she would have been homeless. “I went to cash my last check from a modeling job in New York, but because it was a check from another state, the bank wouldn’t take it,” Theron told Oprah Winfrey. “I needed the money urgently, so I started begging the cashier to help me.”
Their desperation did not go unnoticed, even by uninvolved people. “I begged and begged and a gentleman came along to help,” Theron said. “What I didn’t know was that I was talking to my future manager. When I left, the man who had helped me gave me his card. He said, ‘If you’re interested, I’ll represent you.'”
Theron couldn’t really believe in her luckand one of her friends, who also wanted to become an actress, did not give her too much hope that she had actually been discovered.
The future star of “Atomic Blonde” left the business card in the car – and only called back when someone told her that the man was not only a real cop, but also John Crosby, who already had stars like John Hurt (“The Elephant Man”) and Rene Russo (known from, among others, “Lethal Weapon Films”) helping her to get her first roles.
Crosby gave Theron her first role in ‘Children of Wrath III“ – after all, by far the best part of the horror series based on Stephen King, at least according to the author of these lines. The actress wasn’t even credited, but she left a lasting impression:
Just a year later, she landed bigger roles in the neo-noir ‘2 Days in LA’ and Tom Hanks’ directorial debut ‘That Thing You Do’, and her first leading roles soon followed, for example in Woody Allen’s ensemble satire ‘Celebrity’ or Disney Production “My Big Friend Joe”. The rest is history…