Charlize Theron’s story may not have begun with an origin arc as a struggling aspiring actor trying to find her big break in Hollywood. The powerhouse action star of today has hardly faced her fair share of failures or critically panned films in her career altogether.

Apart from Æon Flux, one can hardly remember a time when Theron managed to deliver a film that the critics ripped to shreds, and even then, her performance was worthy of being noticed in the live-action adaptation as the animated spy.

With a string of romance dramas in the 90s and action blockbusters in the decades that followed, Charlize Theron does what a rare few people in the industry can do and claim it’s not backbreaking enough for her. 

Charlize Theron in The Old Guard (2020)

Charlize Theron Disses One Profession For Hollywood

To speak highly of the creative and constantly churning vehicle of Hollywood is one thing but to do so at the expense and credibility of another profession is a jab below the belt. Modeling is a profession that is equally demanding, if not more so.

The rigorous hours, the incredible pressure of pulling off a ramp walk with precision, the diets, and workouts to keep in shape, everything operates at an extreme within every tier of the profession. Charlize Theron, too, had famously dabbled in the industry as a young aspirant trying to navigate her early years of work. But it failed to stick. 

Charlize Theron in The Cider House Rules (1999)

However, despite the newness and the job that modeling provided to Theron, the F9 actress has her own reservations about the profession:

Hard work has been so instilled in me. I think it’s why I always had somewhat of a problem with modeling. There was no hard work — and I don’t mean that in an offensive way to the great models out there, but there’s a part of me that likes a bit more backbreaking.

Soon after quitting posing for the camera and walking the ramp, Charlize Theron found Hollywood Success with Tobey Maguire’s The Cider House Rules, and alongside Keanu Reeves in The Devil’s Advocate (1997) and Sweet November (2001).

Charlize Theron’s Rise in Hollyaood as a Megastar

Throughout the years of navigating through a paved pathway in Hollywood, Charlize Theron has faced down giant producers and juggernaut studios.

Her films from the 90s and early 2000s have not been the stellar reputation makers they were expected to be although one film among the lot did hit the mark. 2003’s Monster won Theron a coveted Academy Award for her performance as a leading actress. Soon after, movies like Hancock, Prometheus, Young Adult, and A Million Ways to Die in the West shot her to fame. 

Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy in Fury Road (2015)

Critically acclaimed directors and screenwriters then began to pin her for their next big productions. After George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road established a whole new frontier for the actress, she became the face of action – an identity which only increasingly solidified with the premiere of films like Atomic Blonde, The Old Guard, and The Fast & Furious franchise.

Charlize Theron’s latest appearance in Fast X witnessed her character, Cipher, changing sides as she joins the Toretto clan in their fight to get out alive.