My Weekend Crush

I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Dorothy Surrenders, whose weekend crush this weekend is: Cynthia Nixon. Oh, hot! I really liked Cynthia Nixon in "Sex and the City" and damn, she looked good at the London premiere.

I first fell in love with Charlize Theron when I saw "Mighty Joe Young" when I was about 12 or 13. Then, I fell in love with her all over again when I saw "The Italian Job" at age 16. At that age, I enjoyed moderately good movies and didn't expect more than fun and a nice story. Then came "Monster", in which Charlize Theron played Aileen Wuornos, one of America's first female serial killers. This movie really changed my mind and made me realize that a movie can be some much more than just two hours of fun. A movie can make you question yourself, general rules of society and why people are who they are and what makes people do bad things. After seeing Monster, I couldn't stop thinking about Aileen and whether she was, in fact, a monster, or whether she was "just" reacting to the way society and people treated her. Charlize won an Oscar for this role, which she definitely deserved, because I went into this movie wondering whether she could pull off such a transformation - I already had a huge crush on her - and after the front credits rolled, I did not think of Charlize Theron for one second. The person I saw on the screen was Aileen, and still to this day, when I see a picture of Aileen Wuornos, I am reminded that she was the real person, and not the person I know from Monster.

Charlize Theron's life has not always been easy either. She grew up on a farm in Benoni, South Africa. When she was 15 years old, her mother shot and killed her father in self defense, after he tried to hurt them in a drunken rage. Charlize wanted to be a ballet dancer and she travelled to Europe and America to fulfil her dream. However, a knee injury put an end to her career as a dancer and her mother convinced her to move to Los Angeles and become an actress. Charlize was discovered in a bank whilst shouting at a clerk who refused to cash her check.

Charlize with her mother

She started to become noticed after playing opposite of Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino in "The Devil's Advocate", in which she was amazing. Then came "The Astronaut's Wife", "The Cider House Rules", "Men of Honor", "Sweet November", "The Italian Job" and "Monster" (and obviously some more movies in between those). I like Charlize best in dramatic roles in which she can play out her full potential. She is an amazing actress and she does not use her looks in movies. She has said in interviews that she didn't want to take roles as someone's pretty blond girlfriend because these roles did not challenge nor interest her.

How cute is this picture?

Unfortunately, I haven't seen all of her movies, but after "Monster", she next amazed me in "North Country". Numerous reporters have said that Charlize "goes ugly" for her roles, but I have to strongly disagree on that. I didn't find Charlize ugly in North Country, she still had her amazingly beautiful face, but she did not wear makeup or high heels or dresses because her character worked in a mine. To me, not dressing up does not equate to ugly. Most recently, I saw Charlize Theron in "In the Valley of Elah", in which she plays a detective and single mother who tries to find out what happened to a soldier. She was great in that movie as well, because this woman just can act. So far, she has won one best actress Oscar, was nominated for one best actress Oscar for "North Country", won one Golden Globe for Monster and has two nominations for "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" and "North Country", won one SAG Award for "Monster" and was the woman of the year in 2008 at the Hasty Pudding Theatricals at Harvard. She has too many nominations and wins to mention them all here, so check out her IMDB site if you're interested.

Charlize and Stuart Townsend

Charlize Theron was at No. 54 on the AfterEllen Hot 100 list. While I don't find her hot, I do think she is so amazingly beautiful, she has a face like an angel. She also has a big heart, she often has said in interviews that she does not want to get married to Stuart Townsend, her boyfriend of nearly 7 years, until gays and lesbians can legally get married in America as well. Charlize is an active member of PETA, is involved in women's rights campaigns in her native South Africa and in 2006, she received the GLAAD Vanguard Award for increasing visibility and understanding. To sum it up, Charlize Theron is an amazing actress and person.

Pictures from Charlize Theron Web