Charlize Theron has spoken about how she looks back now on the night her mother shot and killed her father in self-defense while he was trying to kill them.
In a deeply painful interview with The New York Times, the Mad Max star said that when she was 15 years old, her father tried to shoot both her and her mother at their home in South Africa, where she spent her early years before later moving to the United States.
She remembered seeing her father drive onto the property that night through her bedroom window and said: “The way that he drove into that property that night, I can’t explain it to you. I just knew something bad was going to happen.”
Theron also explained that because South Africa was in a tense period near the end of apartheid, their home had steel security doors. Even with those protections in place, her father still forced his way in by shooting at them.
She went on to explain what happened next, saying: “He shot through the steel doors to get in, making it very clear that he was going to kill us. His brother was with him as well.”
Theron added: “We knew it was serious, and so by the time he broke into the first gate, my mom ran to the safe to get her gun. She came into my bedroom.”
Theron said that by pure chance, none of the bullets fired through the door hit either of them, something she still seems to view as almost impossible when she thinks back on it.
As she put it: “It’s insane when you think about it that way,” She then recalled the message she believed her father was sending in that moment: “But the messaging was very clear. I’m going to kill you tonight. You think I can’t come into this door? Watch me. I’m going to go to the safe. I’m going to get the shotgun.”
She then said: “The brother ran down the hallway, and she shot one bullet down the hallway that ricocheted seven times and shot him in the hand. It’s stuff you can’t explain.”
And finally, she explained what happened next: “And then she followed my father, who was by then opening the safe to get more weapons out, and she shot him.”
She said: “I think these things should be talked about because it makes other people not feel alone,”
Theron also made clear that part of the reason she talks about it is because she feels many women are not believed or protected when they are in danger. She added: “These things are prevalent in a lot of homes. Women really get a very, very unfair shake, even in this country. Nobody takes it seriously, the situation that they’re in. And I don’t think anybody took my mom seriously.”
