Just by looking at Charlize Theron, you can kind of get a sense not to mess with her, especially when she's banking.
Theron has built a reputation for playing some of the most badass female characters in all of film. If it weren't for Keanu Reeves, who inspired her to do all her own stunt work, we wouldn't have gotten to see her in some of the best action films like Mad Max, Atomic Blonde, and Snow White and the Huntsman. These are roles only she could have played, and she's always given them her all, going above and beyond to prepare for them.
But before she could wow us with all her dramatic role transformations, inspiring action scenes, and scaring us half to death with that frightening stare of hers, she was a nobody, just like anyone else. What you might not know about the South African native, is that she moved from home to gain her independence when she was just 16. But it's her discovery story that really gets us. It's so Theron it's not even funny.
She Wanted To Be A Dancer
Theron's childhood was rough. On top of feeling like she didn't fit in at school, Theron's father, an alcoholic, attacked both her and her mother, pointing a gun at them in his drunken rage. Theron's mother grabbed her own gun, shot at him, and wound up killing him. It was deemed self-defense so she did not face any charges.
When Theron was 16 she wanted to become a dancer, after studying at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg. But she ended up winning a one-year modeling contract instead and she and her mother moved to Milan, Italy.
After her year of modeling was up, Theron and her mother moved to America, to New York and Miami. She returned to her passion; dancing, and attended the Joffrey Ballet School in New York, where she trained to become a ballet dancer until she had a knee injury. She fell into a deep depression because of it, which led to her mother giving her an ultimatum.
Theron told the New York Times in 2008, "I went to New York for three days to model, and then I spent a winter in New York in a friend's windowless basement apartment. I was broke, I was taking classes at the Joffrey Ballet, and my knees gave out. I realized I couldn't dance anymore, and I went into a major depression. My mom came over from South Africa and said, 'Either you figure out what to do next or you come home, because you can sulk in South Africa.'"
Instead of giving up and going home, Theron's mother bought her a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, so Theron said goodbye to New York and flew to La La Land in a last-ditch effort to make a name for herself in showbiz. She was just 19 years old.
Los Angeles Was Just As Bad As New York...In The Beginning
When Theron got to L.A., it wasn't glamorous like you see it in the movies. In fact, it wasn't even better than her life in New York. In her first couple of months, she lived in a motel on a $300 budget that her mother set for her. She continued to get paid from her time in New York, but she was essentially living paycheck to paycheck.
Paychecks are key in her discovery story.
After resorting to stealing bread from restaurants, Theron was worse for wear. She went to a Hollywood Boulevard bank to cash some cheques, including one from her mother, to help her pay for rent. She needed the money bad and tensions were already high.
Her cheque did not clear because it was out-of-state and she was not an American citizen. She began to plead with the bank teller, but his hands were tied. She engaged in a shouting match with the worker and yelled at him that she needed the money until it caught the attention of talent agent John Crosby and pretty much the entire rest of the bank.
"I was begging and pleading, and a gentleman came over and tried to help . . . What I didn’t know is that I was auditioning for a guy who would end up being my manager," Theron told Oprah. "On the way out, the man who’d helped gave me his card. He said, 'If you’re interested, I’ll represent you.'"
Crosby, who was behind her in line, cashed the cheque for her and gave her his business card. He introduced her to an acting school, and thankfully she soon got her first role in Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest.
Apparently, she didn't have a good relationship with Crosby in the end and fired him. She later hired J.J. Harris, who became a mentor to her. So the story is awkward for Crosby and that bank teller, but Theron made it big in the end. Wonder where they both are today.