Charlize Theron: Snapshot

Charlize Theron: Video

Charlize Theron: Five Fun Facts

1. A Nine-year-old Charlize Theron rented the mermaid comedy Splash and quickly developed a crush on Tom Hanks. "I was in love with Tom Hanks instantly," she told PEOPLE. "I hated Daryl Hannah. I was sitting there saying, 'I could have done that part so much better. That should be me!'" Eleven years later, she appeared in Hanks' directorial debut, That Thing You Do!
2. Growing up an only child on her family's farm in South Africa, Charlize Theron told PEOPLE her pet goat Bok "was like my best friend."
3. Charlize Theron, whose first language is Afrikaans, lost her South African accent by watching hours of TV and singing along with American songs on the radio.
4. Charlize Theron was discovered by talent manager John Crosby in 1994, when he spotted her throwing a "little tantrum" in an L.A. bank over the teller's refusal to cash her check.
5. Charlize Theron almost beat out Elizabeth Berkley for the lead in the box office bomb Showgirls. "It was like I had some guardian angel," she tells PEOPLE of being passed up for the role.

Charlize Theron: Biography

1991

August

Ciao!

After her mother enters her in a modeling contest, Theron receives an offer from an Italian scout and heads to Milan. "I just ran," she tells PEOPLE. One year later, tired of being seen as "somebody beautiful who should not say a word," she moves to Manhattan and enrolls at the Joffrey Ballet School. A knee injury quickly ends her dancing days, so she decides to move to L.A. to pursue acting in 1994.

1997

October 17

Devil of a Time

Theron appears in a breakthrough role as Keanu Reeves' wife in The Devil's Advocate. "She was just too good looking for the role," director Taylor Hackford tells EW. "She read and knocked me out but was blonde and tall and sexy, so I wasn't sure she was right." Theron takes up the gauntlet: "When he told me that, I went back in with no makeup and dirty hair; I read for it three times. I f------ won this part fair and square."

December

Semi-Charmed Life

On vacation with her family in Hawaii over Christmas, Theron meets Third Eye Blind singer Stephan Jenkins after a show and the two begin dating. "She's very funny," he tells PEOPLE. "And she learned to play the drums faster than anyone I've ever seen." The pair won't play in harmony forever; the relationship comes to an end in 2001 after three years of dating.

Read More on Charlize Theron's Life

Charlize Theron: Special Feature