10 Greatest Films of Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron was born in South Africa in 1975. Her native language is Afrikaans. When she was 16, she spent a year modeling in Italy. At the end of that year, she moved to New York to attend the Joffrey Ballet School. Her intent was to be a dancer, but a knee injury put an end to that.
At 19, she was recruited by an acting agent and began her career in film. Her first speaking role was as a hitwoman in the 1996 film Two Days in the Valley. She kept busy, doing at least two films a year and four in 2000. In 2003 she starred in the film Monster and the next spring won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Two years later she was nominated for another Oscar for North Country. She also has four Golden Globe nominations, winning one for Monster, and an Emmy nomination.
Scrolling through the images for the below films, you’ll notice a chameleon quality to Charlize Theron. She’s a stunning statuesque model, but has not been at all afraid of subduing that beauty for a role, most noticeably for Monster, in which she was unrecognizable.
10. The Italian Job (2003) — This film is not as good as the Michael Caine original, but it works. It makes this list because there aren’t a lot of testosterone filled action movies in which a safe-cracking race car driving woman gets an opportunity to hold her own against the men and Charlize does a fine job showing that it needn’t be so rare.
“I want to see the look on that man’s face when his gold is gone. He took my father from me, I’m taking this.” — Stella
9. The Devil’s Advocate (1997) — Charlize plays the cautioning wife of a lawyer, played by Keanu Reeves, whom accepts a job that has him literally working for the devil, played by Al Pacino.
“Free will. It’s like butterfly wings: once touched, they never get off the ground. No, I only set the stage. You pull your own strings.” — John Milton
8. The Road (2009) — Cormac McCarthy’s dystopian novel stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as a father and son trying to survive in a totally collapsed America. Charlize plays the wife and mother. Her character is deceased and seen only in flashbacks, but her scenes are critical as they are the memories that allow the father and son to hold onto their humanity.
“That’s all we have left. I should have done it a long time ago. I should’ve done it when we had more bullets. I don’t know why I listened to you. They’re gonna catch up with us and they’re going to kill us. They’re gonna rape me, and then they’re gonna rape your son and they’re gonna kill us and eat us.” — Wife
7. The Yards (2000) — The film is about two friends (played by Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix) in the train yards of New York. Wahlberg’s character has recently been released from prison and wants to go straight. It’s tough in those train yards, though, because corruption is rife and accepted. Charlize plays the girlfriend of Joaquin’s character.
6. North Country (2005) — This film is loosely inspired by the story of Lois Jenson, the first woman to file a class action sexual harassment suit in America. Charlize plays a woman who leaves her abusive boyfriend, and having kids to support, takes a job as an ore miner in Minnesota. The workplace is extremely hostile and Charlize’s character attempts to get something done about that.
“Oh no, there’s a few differences. You don’t go to work scared of what they write about you on the walls, or what kind of disgusting thing you might find in your locker. You don’t gotta be scared that one of these days you’ll come to work and get raped.” Josey Aimes
5. Young Adult (2011) — This is a bold, funny, and cringe-inducing film. Charlize plays a irredeemably horrible person. She’s an author of young adult books. She’s reaching 40 and looks backwards and decides she should have married her high school boyfriend. She decides to return home and correct that and isn’t at all deterred by the facts that that man is now married and has a baby.
“Sometimes in order to heal a few people have to get hurt.” — Mavis Gary
4. The Cider House Rules (1999) — Tobey Maguire is the main character in this film, but he’s shaped by his exposure to Dr. Wilbur Larch, played by Michael Caine and by an inappropriate fling with a woman, played by Charlize, way outside of his league.
“What do you want from me? Wally’s been shot down. He’s paralyzed. What do you want me to do?” — Candy Kendall
3. In the Valley of Elah (2007) — Charlize plays a single-mother police detective that is bullied at work, but stands up to the military to help a father, played by Tommy Lee Jones, investigate the death of his son.
“Oh I’m gonna do it on my own time, and we have a pretty good union, so I’m gonna say four to five weeks.” — Det. Emily Sanders
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) — Tom Hardy may have the titular role, but he can’t really reach the level of Mel Gibson in the original films. But that’s okay, he doesn’t need to, because the real star of this film is Charlize Theron. She plays Imperator Furiosa, a warrior in that dystopian world. In this story she is attempting to rescue a group of enslaved women, called breeders, by taking them by convoy to a safe location. Charlize is a total badass in this film.
“Retaliate first.” — Imperator Furiosa
1. Monster (2003) — During my senior year in high school, in Florida, about an hour away, a series of seven murders were committed. About a year later a woman named Aileen Wuornos was arrested for one of those crimes. After being convicted, she confessed to the other six. In 2002, she was executed by the state. Monster is her story and a tour de force performance for Charlize.
“So whenever I was down, I would just escape into my mind… to my other life, where I was someone else. It made me happy to think that all these people just didn’t know yet who I was gonna be. But one day they’ll all see.” — Aileen
Other films considered for this list include The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Hancock, The Legend of Bagger Vance, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Trapped, Mighty Joe Young, and Aeon Flux. What would make your list?
