Charlize Theron recalled feeling alone after her mother shot and killed her father in self-defense.
In a graphic new interview with The New York Times, the Academy Award-winning actress detailed the lead up to and aftermath of her fatal 1991 car crash, revealing that she thought only she and her mother were affected by the incident.
“I think these things should be talked about because it makes other people feel less alone,” she told the magazine in an interview published Saturday.
“I had never heard of such a story,” she continued. “When this happened to us, I thought we were the only humans. I don’t let this bother me anymore.”
The Atomic Blonde actress, now 50, recalled visiting her uncle’s house after going to the movies with her mother, Gerda Jacoba Aletta Martis. She said she angered her father, Charles Theron, by not announcing her arrival before running into the bathroom.
“I had to pee really bad,” she explained. “So I ran into the house to go to the bathroom and he took it as me being rude because I didn’t stop and say hello to everyone.
“In South Africa, the important thing is the respect you have for your elders, and he was just in a vicious cycle. He was like, ‘Why didn’t you stop? Who do you think you are?'” he added.
Theron, who was 15 at the time, remembers leaving home and asking her mother to help her avoid conflict with her father later.
“I knew he was mad at me, so I told her, ‘When he finally decides to come home, tell him I’m sleeping,'” she told the outlet.
“I went into my room, turned off the lights, and I was scared. My window was facing the driveway, and I could see the level of anger, frustration, and unhappiness in the way he drove.” She said, “I knew something bad was going to happen.”
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Charlize recalled knowing the encounter was “serious” and said the mother ran to the safe to retrieve her gun before returning to her daughter’s bedroom.
“The door was unlocked, so we both held the door with our bodies,” she told the outlet.
“He just backed away and started shooting through the door,” she continued, adding that it was “funny” that “not a single bullet hit.”
“The message was very clear: ‘I’m going to kill you tonight. You think I can’t walk in this door? Watch me. I’m going to the safe. I’m going to get the shotgun,'” the actress recalled.
She also recalled that both her father and uncle, who were allegedly accompanying Charles, were shot. “He walked to the safe and my mother opened the door while my brother was still standing there,” Theron said.
“My brother ran down the hallway and she fired one bullet into the hallway that ricocheted seven times and struck my brother in the hand, which is inexplicable. She followed my father, who by that time had opened the safe to retrieve more weapons, and shot him.”
Charlize said her mother “picked herself up quickly” and moved on after the fatal accident.
“The next morning she dropped me off at school and she was just like, ‘We’ll move on.'” It’s not necessarily the healthiest method, but it worked for us. ”
The “Mad Max: Fury Road” star said her mother “wanted her to forget about it” and “didn’t want[her]to sit down.”
“We didn’t have a therapist around, so the best therapy in her head was, ‘We have to move on,'” Charlize concluded. Gerda was not charged, and the shooting was ultimately ruled to be self-defense.
This isn’t the first time the famous “Monster” actress has reflected on the “trauma” of her father’s death and gender-based violence.
“Gender-based violence is on the horizon, not just in South Africa but all over the world,” she told Town & Country magazine in 2023. “It’s hard not to notice these things purely because you’re a woman.”
In 2019, she revealed that her father was intoxicated during the alleged encounter. “My father was drunk and couldn’t even walk when he came into the house with a gun,” she told NPR at the time.
“There’s no shame in talking about this, because I think the more we talk about these things, the more we realize that we’re not alone in any of these issues.”
