In the post-apocalyptic drama “The Road,” Charlize Theron plays a wife and mother who yearns to commit suicide because she can’t handle the overwhelming bleakness surrounding her.

In “The Burning Plain,” which opens Friday, the 34-year-old portrays a miserable restaurateur whose guilt over past secrets manifests itself in empty sex and self-abuse.

Pretty heavy stuff.

But don’t think Theron isn’t aware of how tough it can be to sell such dark stories to a movie-going audience that is largely looking for lighter subject matter amid the slumping economy.
(more…)

Charlize Theron attended the trophy presentation of the Dixiana Breeders Futurity at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky on Saturday Oct. 10. She presented the trophy to Martinez who won. Low quality photos are now in the gallery.

Don’t call Charlize Theron anything but an actress. “When somebody calls me a movie star, I worry a bit,” she says. “It used to be about the work, but now it means you show up at the Oscars and look good.”

The South African beauty, 34, who moved to New York to model and pursue ballet as a teenager, admits she started acting when a knee injury forced her to quit dancing.

“The whole model-turned-actress thing doesn’t have a good track record,” she tells the Style section of the U.K’s Sunday Times newspaper, “Today, younger girls are addicted to the fame, but that is not me. I keep all that stuff private.”

And true to her word, there is one thing Charlize refuses to discuss, her mother Gerda’s shooting of her alcoholic father Charles when she was just 15. Police ruled the killing as self-defense and Gerda was never charged.

“It’s a tattoo I cannot erase,” she states. “People always bring it up, but I’m not comfortable, because it concerns others.”

However, she’s happy to talk about her eight-year relationship with Irish actor Stuart Townsend, revealing, “My universe shifted when we got together, and life has been better since.”

And the star of The Road (out Nov. 25) admits that there’s only one way to really impress her man. And yes, it involves sports.

With the soccer World Cup being held in her native South Africa Charlize, marvels, “I tell my boyfriend I have been nominated for an Oscar, and he goes, ‘That’s nice, babe.’ But I say I can get tickets for the World Cup and he is all ‘Holy s***!’. All of a sudden, I’m a goddess.”

Source: OK Magazine

Charlize Theron has opted out of the thriller “The Tourist,” to which she has long been attached, and sources say Angelina Jolie is in talks to replace her.

Jolie, fresh off an action-heavy part in “Salt,” would take on the one-part seductress, one-part action role of the title.

The project is now also seeking a director, with Bharat Nalluri (“Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”) recently exiting. Neither producer Spyglass Entertainment, nor Nalluri, nor reps for the actresses could immediately be reached for comment.

Production is tentatively set to begin in early 2010.

A remake of the French thriller “Anthony Zimmer” from 2005, “Tourist” centers on an American tourist who goes undercover on behalf of Interpol to entrap a former lover suspected of being a global criminal. It follows in the long tradition of innocents caught up in shady activities abroad, and also has contemporary echoes with “Taken” this past year.

It’s not the first time there’s been movement on “Tourist.” Tom Cruise had been loosely attached at an earlier point for the lead male role, but Sam Worthington will now play the part as he rides his “Terminator: Salvation” and “Avatar” hot streak.

Source: Yahoo! News

Charlize will guest star on THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O’BRIEN on October 22 to promote The Road. Other guests include Steven Ho and the Dave Matthews Band. So set those VCRs and DVRs.

South African Oscar winner Charlize Theron has teamed up with designer Shea Mullen of Give and Take tees to create four limited-edition T-shirts that will benefit Charlize Theron’s Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP).

The vintage-inspired tees are $50 each, with $25 going directly to CTAOP, which aims to create a better life for young people in South Africa, especially those living in remote regions with a high chance of contracting HIV.

Charlize Theron’s Africa Outreach Project will put the money raised toward helping to provide sustainable health care, education and recreational outlets, including soccer fields, in these areas.

The four styles feature either the South African Baobab tree scrawled with CTAOP’s motto: “Look Within, Think Beyond and Reach Out” or the CTAOP logo (three multicolored loops encircling a sphere); available in grey, white, purple, pink and orange.

“Give and Take is a socially responsible company and I’m thrilled to have their support,” says Theron. “The kids that are being helped through my African Outreach Project are so incredible and vibrant. These t-shirts capture the spirit of South Africa and give everyone a way to help.”

To support Theron’s cause, go to giveandtaketees.com to pre-order your tee.

Source: Stylelist

She’s a beautiful, successful actress with millions in the bank, an Oscar on the sideboard and an enviable long-term relationship – but there’s still one thing that keeps Charlize Theron awake at night: the fear that her cupboards are messy.

The 34-year-old South African has admitted she has obsessive-compulsive disorder, which makes her irrationally anxious about tidy cabinets.

The actress, who won her Oscar for Monster in 2004, said: ‘I actually have a serious problem – obsessive-compulsive disorder. I don’t do counting or anything like that. I’m good with chaos, I just don’t like it when chaos is hidden.

‘So I have a problem with cabinets being messy and people just shoving things in cabinets and closing the door.

‘I will literally lie in bed and not be able to sleep because I’ll be like, “I think I saw something in that cabinet that just shouldn’t be there.”’

Source: Daily Mail

CHARLIZE THERON
went to great lengths to ensure the paparazzi didn’t crash filming for her nude scenes in upcoming movie THE BURNING PLAIN – by shooting at the crack of dawn.

The Oscar winner disrobes for her role in the upcoming drama and is seen smoking a cigarette through an open window in full view of passers-by.

But movie bosses were worried photographers would catch the star naked once they discovered the location of the shoot – so they changed the time of filming to make sure Theron’s scenes were kept secret.

Director Guillermo Arriaga tells New York Post’s gossip column PageSix, ‘We had to shoot the scene at 6am before any of the photographers were up. It was done in such secrecy that it wasn’t even in the script. Only three people, including myself, knew it was going to happen.’

Source: New Kerala

“I’m very proud of that Oscar and I understand what an honour it is because I have so many actors I admire tremendously that have never experienced that,” the Daily Express quoted her as saying.

The actress had taken home the prize for her role of real-life murderer Aileen Wuornos in ‘Monster’.

The beauty has in fact placed it at a place in her house where people can notice it.

She added: “It’s in my office, right next to a bathroom that lots of people use in the house. People will come up and be like, ”I just walked past an Oscar.” I’ll be like, ”Isn’t that awesome?”

Source: Times of India

Hollywood actress Charlize Theron hit rock bottom when her dreams of becoming a prima ballerina were shattered but it was her mother who encouraged her to try her luck at acting instead.

The South African beauty trained as a ballet dancer in New York City, but a knee injury at 19 left her devastated and ruined any chance she had of turning her passion into a career. Now the star has heaped praise on her mother for helping her out of her slump and launching her Hollywood career, reported imdb.com.

‘I remember at night, crying my eyes out and eating four pints of ice cream because I couldn’t dance anymore, and my mom saying ‘Well, why don’t you try acting?’ Because of that, I’m standing on a red carpet today,’ said the actress.

The actress has gone on to star in a series of hit films and even scooped an Academy Award for her performance in 2003 movie ‘Monster’.

Source: Trak