POWER house

Model turned actress, single mother and philanthropist, Charlize Theron is a household name who has proven her staying power

- MEGAN PAULSE

Charlize Theron is no stranger to our shores, this is after all where she was born and raised. While the Benoni born Hollywood star faced severe backlash for her comments about her mother tongue toward the end of last year, there is no denying that she is still well-loved and respected across the globe, and rightfully so.

At the tender of age of 16, she left South Africa after receiving a modelling contract that saw her, and her mother moving to Milan, Italy. After two years, she moved to New York, where she hoped to pursue her dream of becoming a dancer. But as we all know, the road to reaching our goals is very rarely as straight as we hope that they will be, and for Charlize it was no different. While taking classes at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York, she suffered a knee injury, ending her dancing career before it had even begun. Following this blow, she recalls her mother telling her: ‘Either you figure out what to do next or you come home, because you can sulk in South Africa’.

While her first role may have been an uncredited one in the 1995 horror, Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest, her breakout movie came just two years later when she was cast as Keanu Reeves’ wife in The Devil’s Advocate (also starring acting royalty Al Pacino). Many other roles followed, but it was her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in