As children, the vast majority of people are taught that lying to other people is the wrong thing to do. However, kids are also encouraged to use their imaginations since it is a great way of engaging their minds. Since being told not to lie while still being encouraged to imagine can be kind of confusing for some kids, it makes a lot of sense that some young people don’t tell the truth at every turn.
During her career, Charlize Theron has played so many iconic roles that it proves that she is one of the best actors of her generation. With that in mind, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that when Theron was younger, she could habitually lie about her own background and pull that deception off. While some people may jump to the conclusion that Theron should be judged for her past deceptions, given the reasons for Charlize’s lies, they are understandable, to say the very least.
Charlize’s Abusive Past
In an ideal world, every parent on the planet would do their very best to bring their kids up in a loving environment. Unfortunately, everyone knows that simply isn’t the reality as there are far too many abusive parents in the world. Even though it often seems like celebrities lead entirely charmed lives, things aren’t always as they seem. For example, it is known that some celebrities grew up with allegedly abusive parents. Unfortunately for her, Charlize Theron has revealed that she had a troubled childhood due to her abusive father.
During a 2019 appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air, Charlize Theron spoke about what caused her father to be abusive. "My father was a very sick man. My father was an alcoholic all my life. I only knew him one way, and that was as an alcoholic. ... It was a pretty hopeless situation. Our family was just kind of stuck in it." It is amazing that Theron could talk about her father's issues with that much kindness considering how profoundly she says his actions affected her family.
"The day-to-day unpredictability of living with an addict is the thing that you sit with and have kind of embedded in your body for the rest of your life, more than just this one event of what happened one night,'' she said. "I think our family was an incredibly unhealthy one. And all of it, I think, scarred us in a way.
A Tragic Lie
During the aforementioned interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, Charlize Theron described the night in which her father’s years of abuse came to a violent head. “My father was so drunk that he shouldn't have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun. My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door because he was trying to push through the door. So both of us were leaning against the door from the inside to have him not be able to push through. He took a step back and just shot through the door three times. None of those bullets ever hit us, which is just a miracle. But in self-defense, she ended the threat."
In a day and age in which most people understand how traumatic some experiences can be, it makes sense that some folks with abusive pasts don’t want to talk about their experiences. However, while talking to NPR, Theron addressed her decision to talk about what happened in her past as an adult. "This family violence, this kind of violence that happens within the family, is something that I share with a lot of people. I'm not ashamed to talk about it because I do think that the more we talk about these things, the more we realize we are not alone in any of it. I think, for me, it's just always been that this story really is about growing up with addicts and what that does to a person."
Of course, Charlize Theron’s decision to go public with the events of her youth is extremely admirable. After all, Theron’s movies make a fortune which means that she has the platform to get people talking about an issue like the lasting effects of growing up in an abusive home. However, that doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with the fact that she revealed that when she was young, Theron often lied to people about how her father lost his life. “I just pretended like it didn’t happen. I didn’t tell anybody — I didn’t want to tell anybody. Whenever anybody asked me, I said my dad died in a car accident. Who wants to tell that story? Nobody wants to tell that story.”
