LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Charlize Theron celebrated her birthday on August 7 in a distinctly different manner. The newly minted 48-year-old actress spent the day with fellow actors protesting at the picket line for the SAG-AFTRA strike in Hollywood, California.
The ‘Fast X’ actress was seen posting a photo on her social media platform with the caption, “We out here! #sagaftrastrong #wgastron.” After the Oscar-winning actress posted the photo on Instagram, she was flooded with comments that hailed her for spending her birthday at the picket line.
This was, however, not the first time that the ‘Hancock’ actress has been vocal and visible to show her support for the SAG-AFTRA strike. She became one of the first signatories to sign the letter to call an actors’ strike in the events leading up to the SAG-AFTRA strike in early July.
How old is Charlize Theron?
The South African-American actress turned 48 on August 7. The actress, who has several blockbusters credited to her name, was born in Benoni in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Since her childhood was spent during this turbulent period, she is haunted by her memories from that time. Thus watching ‘Black Panther’ in 2018 became more of an emotional catharsis for the blonde diva.
In a 2018 interview with Michael B Jordan on Variety's 'Actors on Actors' segment, she recalled, “I was born and raised in South Africa during the apartheid era, and I am very much a white African who lived and thrived under tremendously dark circumstances, and that really marks you as a person,” before adding, “Whether that’s your ideology or not, you’re living in it.”
Saying that she was 15 when the apartheid laws were finally repealed, Theron said that it affected her greatly. Thus watching ‘Black Panther’ elicited an “emotional reaction” in her because of her two adopted African-American daughters.
She said, “That movie broke so many glass ceilings across the board. Not just the fact that there are women in power and that they’re black, beautiful, strong African-American women, African women… I got something very cathartic out of that,” before continuing, “I mean it’s so empowering to watch that movie.”
The ‘Atomic Blonde’ star added, “It’s so much more than just whether you’re from Africa or whether you’re African-American... It’s such a bigger thing than that.”
'That was just kind of the norm'
The ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ actress, despite being one of the most successful actresses in Hollywood, had to go through the trauma of being objectified during the early days of her career.
In 2022, during an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she said, “Having absolutely no control over what you’re wearing is a big one that really f**king annoyed me for years,” before adding, “Having some guy make you have a fitting almost in front of them— stuff like that, it’s really belittling. When I started, there was no conversation around it. It was like, ‘This is what you’re wearing.’”
One of the most vocal activists against the objectification of women in Hollywood, Theron continued, “I remember one movie in particular, this male director who just kept bringing me in, fitting after fitting after fitting after … And it was just so obvious that it was to do with my sexuality and how fuckable they could make me in the movie. And when I started out, that was just kind of the norm.”
