Charlize: SA's finest hour
2004-03-01 09:43
Hollywood - Former farm girl Charlize Theron became the first South African to win an Oscar when she scooped the best actress Academy Award for her dramatic turn as a murderous prostitute in Monster.
The 28-year-old, who grew up on a farm outside Benoni speaking only Afrikaans, has now been propelled to Hollywood royalty status after less than 10 years as an actor.
The actress earned her first Academy Award after packing on 13.6kg and rendering herself almost unrecognisable to tackle the gritty role of now-executed serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
"The film opened in South Africa yesterday and I'm going to go back home and show them an Oscar," she said backstage after winning the award.
"I know everyone in New Zealand's been thanked," she said, joking of the 11-win sweep for Lord of the Rings, "so I'm going to thank everyone in South Africa, my home country.
"This has been such an incredible year," she said, choking back tears after accepting her golden statuette from last year's best actor winner Adrien Brody, who spritzed breath freshener in his mouth in a nod to his famous on-stage kiss of Halle Berry last year. "I can't believe this."
When she attended the Oscar Governor's Ball after the Academy Awards ceremony at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, Theron was still speechless over her win.
"It's been an incredible journey and I feel so incredibly blessed," said the actress, who wore a golden-coloured beaded and sparkling gown by designer Tom Ford to Hollywood's biggest night.
President Thabo Mbeki meanwhile led his countrymen in feting the country's first Oscar win.
"Theron has proved that we as a nation can produce the best in the world," he said in a statement. "South Africa has done it again, the Nobel prize for peace, Nobel for literature and now an Oscar for best actress."
The ravishing former model and ballet dancer who arrived in Hollywood less than 10 years ago with no acting experience, thanked her mother Gerda, who shot and killed Theron's father in self-defence.
"To my mom, you have sacrificed so much for me to make my dreams come true. There ware no words to describe how much I love you. And I'm not going to cry," she said almost breaking down.
She thanked Patty Jenkins, the director and writer of Monster, and the movie's co-star, Christina Ricci.
Theron said Ricci was truly the unsung hero of this film, which has had all of Hollywood raving about it and Theron, who has been transformed from a pretty screen face into a heavyweight actress and star.
The statuesque ice-blond ex-model and dancer made an amazing transformation to play the hard-faced, jowly and graceless Wuornos.
Theron, who possesses all the flawless traits that Tinseltown demands of glamorous leading ladies - satiny skin, perfect teeth, piercing blue eyes and a sex-goddess figure - donned the ultimate disguise to play Wuornos.
But she put on a lot of weight with a doughnut diet, wore crooked false teeth, dull brown contact lenses while her model's complexion was overlaid with a blotchy skin of liquid resin that puffed out her fine features.
"The voters love beautiful women who have to sacrifice their looks for a film," Oscars expert Tom O'Neil said. "Charlize did this well and they love her."
But critics say Theron deserved cinema's highest honour not only for her remarkable transformation but also for her raw, and sometimes empathetic, depiction of the tragic but murderous Wuornos.