Charlize Theron is reflecting on the tragic incident where her mother fatally shot her father when she was just 15 years old. The "Atomic Blonde" actress candidly spoke about the incident in a recent interview, recalling how her mother was desperately trying to protect her from her alcoholic father.
"I believe these stories should be shared because they make others feel less alone," Theron told The New York Times. "I had never heard a story like this before. When this happened to us, I thought we were the only ones. But now, I'm not haunted by it anymore."
Theron detailed the events leading up to the tragic shooting, recalling how she and her mother stopped by her uncle's house after a trip to the movie theater. She inadvertently offended her inebriated father by not greeting him upon their arrival.
"I had to use the toilet really badly, so I ran into the house. He took that as me being rude because I didn't stop and say hello to everyone," she told the outlet. "In South Africa, it's a big deal to show respect for elders. And he was in a state where he just spiraled. He said, 'Why didn't you stop? Who do you think you are?'"
After they got home, Theron instructed her mother to protect her from a confrontation with her father. "I knew he was mad at me. So I said to her, 'When he eventually decides to come home, please tell him I'm asleep,'" she recalled. "I went into my room, turned off the lights, and was scared. My window faced the driveway, and I could tell the level of anger, frustration, or unhappiness by the way he drove in. I just knew something bad was going to happen."
The "Mad Max: Fury Road" star said her father "broke into the house" alongside his brother, noting that he used firearms to get through the home's security measures. "He shot through the steel doors to get in, making it very clear that he was going to kill us," Theron remembered. "We knew it was serious, and by the time he broke into the first gate, my mom ran to the safe to get her gun. She came into my bedroom. The two of us were holding the door with our bodies because there wasn't a lock on it."
Theron said her father fired multiple shots at her and her mother in her room. "He just stepped back and started shooting through the door. And this is the crazy thing: Not one bullet hit us," she said. "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.'"
The "Monster" actress said her mother shot both her uncle and her father. "He walked to the safe, and my mom pulled the door open while the brother was still standing there," she said. "The brother ran down the hallway, and she shot one bullet down the hallway that ricocheted seven times and hit him in the hand. It's stuff you can't explain. And then she followed my father, who was by then opening the safe to get more weapons out, and she shot him."
Theron added that her mother didn't want to process the incident after her father died from the gunshot wound. "She picked right up," she remembered. "The next morning she sent me to school. She was just like, 'We're going to move on.' Not necessarily the healthiest thing, but it worked for us."
The actress continued, "She wanted me to forget about it. She didn't want me to sit in it. We didn't have therapists around, so in her head, the best therapy was, 'We've got to move on.'"
She said her bond with her mother grew stronger after that fateful night. "It really did change our relationship," she said. "We were always very close. We felt like a team. But that night changed it because in retrospect, once I got out of the shock of it, I realized that she saved my life. Which is a big thing."
Theron will next appear in the survival thriller "Apex," which hits Netflix on April 24th. She will also star in Christopher Nolan's forthcoming movie "The Odyssey" as the nymph Calypso, which was announced earlier this week at CinemaCon.
