Stars! They're Just Like Us (These Days)! Or Why I'm Very Okay With Charlize!

Are stars "just like us?" Are actors their roles? And are they consistently playing out their own psycho-dramas on screen and in public? In the case of Charlize Theron, it's a fair question to ask. Or put it this way: throughout the years, there may be a reason we haven't seen her playing any of those cute, funny-bunny leading lady roles like Jennifer Lopez or Cameron Diaz (not that there's anything wrong with that), with the exception of a few "pretty girl" roles early in her career in forgettable movies like "Trial and Error" and "Sweet November." 

First coming to critical notice in "Monster," in which she obliterated her "pretty girl" looks with weight gain and no make-up in order to portray true-life serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar, Charlize has become Hollywood's go-to actress for kicking ass - particularly male ass - either literally, or, in the case of "Bombshell," figuratively, by portraying a true-life FOX News anchor who I won't deign to name, but who did one good thing by leading the charge against the sexually abusive Roger Ailes and his cohorts. 

At face value, based solely by the roles she chooses, the message seems to be: do not fuck with Charlize or she will wipe the floor with you in rock 'em sock 'em action movies like "Atomic Blonde" and "Mad Max: Fury Road." Of course, it's always a sketchy game trying to read into any actor's roles this way, since what they select can be dependent on what their agent might suggest, what's available at any given moment and scheduling. But in Charlize's case, it tempting to do so.

Just last week, Charlize hurled a bit of a thunderbolt, offering even more details about a horrifying night from her childhood, which she'd previously spoken about in the early-2000s. She had just turned 15 when her estranged, alcoholic and violent father, Charles, stormed the home where she and her mother, Gerda, lived just outside Johannesburg, South Africa, prompting a terrified Gerda to lock herself and her daughter in her bedroom. Charles became unhinged, screaming, pounding on the door, and threatened to kill them  - and then, incredibly, pulled a gun and begin shooting bullets through the door, which whizzed past Gerda and Charlize, as they were leaning against it, desperate to keep it shut. 

That's when Gerda grabbed her own gun and began blindly shooting through the door from her side. After which there was silence. Charles was dead. Authorities ruled it self-defense and Gerda was not charged. Since then, Charlize has spearheaded several charitable organizations fighting violence against women, and given that she grew up during the still on-going AIDs crisis in South Africa, several South African-based AIDs charities. When asked if her father's death shaped her, she shrugged dismissively, "It's a simple correlation to make."

It is simple - too simple, perhaps. Or is it? Her grim determination on screen is seemingly echoed off-screen. Various gossipeuse sites have long told us that she's not exactly a warm fuzzy to be around. And her brief dalliance with allegedly abusive, crusty meat puppet, Sean Penn, gave everyone pause - really, Charlize, what the actual fuque? - while past boyfriends, like Third Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins, are more than a bit frosty when asked about her, as when an interviewer once enquired if any of his band's songs were inspired by her. "Um, no," he said, and pointedly left it at that. She can also be blaringly obtuse, lately with respect to her face, which she insists has remained untouched by a surgeon's scalpel. "I'm just aging!" she cried. Insert Sure Jan gif here. 

In the past, guessing games of this kind could sometimes lead you down a blind path. "That's what she's really like," cooed moviegoers as they watched Joan Crawford playing an admirable hard worker and devoted mother in "Mildred Pierce." Her off-camera persona was carefully curated and spoon-fed to audiences by studio biographies and Crawford herself: she'd grown up poverty-stricken (true), she worked diligently to achieve stardom (and how!), and was lovingly devoted to her adopted children (*insert car screech sound here*). Joan, audiences were told, was "Just like us." Only more so and better. And then very much not. Just after her death, her daughter, Christina, scalded her reputation with her memoir, "Mommie Dearest," which revealed Joan's "hard work" as near-psychotic tenaciousness, while her parenting was revealed to be equally deranged, and sometimes abusive, given her resolve to have "perfect," camera-ready moppets. 

But we no longer live in an age when monolithic movie studios and their publicity departments control the narrative. Now, for better or worse given social media, we're getting a sharp glimpse of what stars are actually like and how they think. In some cases, we're learning how extraordinarily dim they are, highlighted recently when George Clooney tried to be the Big Hero for actors during the still-ongoing strike by suggesting that annual guild dues be raised for the wealthiest actors, and further, by offering to provide millions of his own cash to the union to "help make up shortcomings" from producers. "That's not how strikes and contract negotiations work," he had to be told by a clearly wearied Fran Drescher, who swatted him away by adding that actors aren't striking because of "guild dues" (and all without calling him an idiot) (some stunt, Fran!). 

Objectively, the only star benefiting consistently from social media and increased access these days is the objectively delightful Lynda Carter, but otherwise, that old "Us Magazine" headline, "Stars! They're Just Like Us!" has become alarmingly accurate - and then some. The curtain has been yanked back. Stars are slobs, boozehounds and fast-food addicts (Ben Affleck); they're messy egomaniacs who erroneously boast about their success (Amy Schumer); they're rapists finally getting called to the carpet (Danny Masterson); they're nepo babies who'll never take responsibility for themselves (Tori Spelling); they're smarmy careerists who don't care who they demolish (Justin Timberlake): and "Low Vera"-type mean girls masquerading as nice girls (Julia Roberts). 

Yes, it can be a sketch game to analyze an actor and reach conclusions based on their roles and their own life experiences, because usually, what you're seeing is just a performance (even in public) - unless, in the case of Charlize, it's a deliberate match of actor to role and to their very public activities. As Charlize has shown us, stars can be: cranky, occasionally humorless, have ugly, tragic upbringings, sometimes echo that upbringing with allegedly abusive partners, and try to even the score, once they've made it, by kicking ass in the movies and supporting the right charities. All told, not bad, Charlize, not bad. We're not seeing everything, of course, but so far, I'm very okay with it. 

Photo Credits: Splash News, Fox Searchlight, Warner Bros.