Monster luck for Charlize
2004-02-10 22:16
California - Rising Hollywood star Charlize Theron said on Monday she never dreamed when she was growing up in South Africa that she would one day be nominated for an Oscar.
The 28-year-old beauty, who entered Hollywood's pantheon of stars with a best-actress nomination for the drama Monster, said she used to watch the Academy Awards on television just to get to know the names of actors.
"I was so sucked into my ballet, I thought I was going to do that for the rest of my life and I was so happy with that," said the actress during a lunch banquet for Oscar nominees in Beverly Hills.
"But, when I got a little older we had the Academy (Awards) aired in South Africa and my mom and I would always watch it.
"That was how you learned actors' names for the first time: 'So that's Bruce Willis! That's what he looks like.' It wasn't like, 'God, this is something I'd like to do with my life,'" she told journalists.
But now that the stunning beauty, who transformed herself dramatically for her role in Monster, has been recognised in Hollywood as a serious actress, she is thrilled to be honoured with an unexpected Oscar nod.
"I've never gone through this experience, and the great thing is that I've never relied on these things to happen in order for me to be happy about my career, but now that they are happening, it's really nice," she said.
Conflicted roles are rare for women
Theron, who played United States serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the true story of a troubled, brutal woman who was executed in 2002, said she hoped there would be more complex roles for women to play in Hollywood that reflected the reality of life.
"I feel that conflicted roles are very rare for women and that was the first thing that really attracted me to this (role).
"This just felt like the kind of part that (Robert) de Niro gets to do, or Dustin Hoffman or Jack (Nicholson).
"We (women) are not perfect, we are complicated, we are conflicted and we are wrong, we are not just mothers and nurturers," she said.