Charlize Theron (South Africa, 50 years old) wanted to be a dancer. In fact, the (eventually) actress moved to New York and trained at the prestigious Joffrey Ballet School, until a knee injury frustrated this career. Some time later, actor’s representative John Crosby, who found her one day in a bank queue, having serious problems cashing a check, noticed her and, in 1995, she debuted in Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest. The interpreter spoke about the success in Hollywood that followed, her childhood with an alcoholic and violent father, and other moments that have marked her life in a recent interview with The New York Times, on the occasion of her most recent film, the action movie Apex (2026). In the conversation, in which her years as a dancer also played a prominent role, the Monster actress almost unintentionally brought up a controversy that seemed forgotten and involved fellow actor Timothée Chalamet, who last February, during an interview, opined that ballet and opera “no longer interest anyone.”
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“Dancing is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Dancers are superheroes,” Theron commented while talking about the physical challenges Apex posed for her; to which her interviewer replied: “I’m sorry, Timothée Chalamet.” After this reference to the actor from Marty Supreme, the actress continued: “In 10 years, AI will be able to do Timothée’s job, but it won’t be able to replace a person on a stage dancing live.” In her next title, which will premiere on April 24 on Netflix, the actress plays a climber who is pursued by a killer in the Australian jungle; in short, an action thriller. On how she approached this role, she told The New York Times: “In some movies I had small scenes where I had to do an action sequence. I immediately related that to my career as a dancer, and I missed telling stories through my body.” After the physically demanding shoot, she had surgery on her elbows twice.
“We shouldn’t [says an unpublished profanity] about other art forms,” the actress continued her reflection on Chalamet’s unfortunate words. “Dance taught me discipline. It taught me structure. It taught me hard work. It taught me to be strong. It’s almost abusive. There were several times I had blood infections from blisters that never healed. And you don’t get a day off. Literally, I’m talking about bleeding through your shoes. And that’s something you have to practice every day: the mindset of not giving up, that there’s no other option, of moving forward,” she confessed. Returning to the actor from Call me by your name and his words from last February, Theron assured: “I hope to meet him someday. It was a very reckless comment about an art form, two art forms, that we need to constantly uplift because, yes, they have a hard time.”
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The Oscar winner for Monster grew up on a farm in South Africa during the years of apartheid. A few weeks before turning 16, she faced the murder of her father at the hands of her mother: “My father was so drunk he shouldn’t even have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun. My mother and I were in my bedroom, pushing the door from the inside so he couldn’t get through. He stepped back and shot three times through the door. And none of those bullets hit us, which was a true miracle. But, in self-defense, she ended the threat,” she told NPR in July 2020. Justice exonerated her mother of all charges, who today lives with the actress in Los Angeles.
