"I think these things should be talked about because it makes other people not feel alone," the actress said
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NEED TO KNOW
- Charlize Theron is opening up about the night her father was shot and killed by her mother in self-defense when she was a teen
- Her father, Charles Theron, drunkenly threatened her and her mother, Gerda, at their home in South Africa in 1991 when she was 15 years old
- “I think these things should be talked about because it makes other people not feel alone,” Charlize said of the incident
Charlize Theron is opening up about the night her father was shot and killed by her mother in self-defense when she was a teen.
In a new interview with The New York Times Magazine, published on Saturday, April 18, the Old Guard 2 actress, 50, recounted the harrowing incident and explained why she isn't "haunted" by it today.
Charlize shared that her father, Charles Theron, drunkenly threatened her and her mother, Gerda, at their home in South Africa in 1991 when she was 15 years old.
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She said the incident began when her father became angry at her when she entered her uncle's house without greeting him. Her father was there drinking with his brother at the time.
"I had to pee really badly. So I ran into the house to get to the toilet, and he took that as me being rude, because I didn’t stop and say hello to everybody," Charlize explained. "Big thing in South Africa, the kind of respect that you have to have for elders. And he was in a state where he just spiraled. Like: 'Why didn’t you stop? Who do you think you are?' "
The Mad Max: Fury Road star and her mother then went back home. As soon as they walked into the house, Charlize told her mother, "I think you should separate from him," as this was the latest of numerous incidents involving her dad. "Leaving that house, I knew something was just different. She knew it, too," she explained.
That night, Charlize asked her mother to say she was sleeping to avoid a confrontation with her father when he returned home.
"I went into my room, I turned my lights off, and I was scared," she told the Times. "My window faced the driveway, and I could tell the level of anger, frustration or unhappiness by the way he drove in. The way that he drove into that property that night, I can’t explain it to you. I just knew something bad was going to happen."
Her father then "broke into the house" by shooting through the steel doors, common in South Africa at the time "because that’s the kind of violence that we were living in," Charlize said, explaining, "Our country was on the brink of civil war."
"He shot through the steel doors to get in, making it very clear that he was going to kill us. His brother was with him as well," she recounted. "We knew it was serious, and so by the time he broke into the first gate, my mom ran to the safe to get her gun. She came into my bedroom. The two of us were holding the door with our bodies because there wasn’t a lock on it. And he just stepped back and started shooting through the door."
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"And this is the crazy thing: Not one bullet hit us," she continued. "It’s insane when you think about it that way. But the messaging was very clear. I’m going to kill you tonight. You think I can’t come into this door? Watch me. I’m going to go to the safe. I’m going to get the shotgun."
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"He walked to the safe, and my mom pulled the door open while the brother was still standing there," Charlize said. "The brother ran down the hallway, and she shot one bullet down the hallway that ricocheted seven times and shot him in the hand. It’s stuff you can’t explain. And then she followed my father, who was by then opening the safe to get more weapons out, and she shot him."
Charlize shared that she has always been candid about the incident because she wants to help "other people not feel alone."
"Unfortunately, this is not an isolated story," she told the Times. "These things are prevalent in a lot of homes. Women really get a very, very unfair shake, even in this country. Nobody takes it seriously, the situation that they’re in. And I don’t think anybody took my mom seriously."
Charlize has been passionate in her advocacy for women who have experienced domestic violence.
In 2020, she worked alongside the humanitarian organization CARE and the Entertainment Industry Foundation to launch Together For Her, a campaign to deploy funds and other resources to fight domestic violence amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2008, she was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace, with a goal to advocate for the elimination of violence against women.
"I think these things should be talked about because it makes other people not feel alone," Charlize told the Times about that night in 1991. "I never knew about a story like that. When this happened to us, I thought we were the only people. I’m not haunted by this stuff anymore."
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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