Charlize Theron on the Correct Way to Pronounce Her Name
Charlize Theron is an Oscar-winning actress, a longtime Hollywood A-lister, and also the reigning queen of action cinema, thanks to her starring roles in both 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road and this Friday’s Atomic Blonde. In the latter case, she assumes the role of a spy in Cold War Berlin who finds herself mired in all sorts of dastardly double-crossing business related to the death of her former beau. It’s yet more proof that she’s at the top of the cinematic class when it comes to kicking on-screen you-know-what, although as Yahoo Movies‘ latest exclusive video with her proves, that doesn’t mean people actually know how to pronounce her name. (Watch the clip above.)
In the above sit-down with Yahoo Movies’ Kevin Polowy, Theron finally sets the record straight by teaching her interviewer — and the moviegoing world at large — how to properly identify her. Apparently, in her native South Africa (she was born in Benoni), “Theron” is pronounced in one of two ways, neither of which is the customary way it’s enunciated here in the States. The actress says she chose to Americanize it on the advice of her original manager, who thought it would be easier to say it as it’s spelled, rather than in a more accurate South African manner. But then, as she admits, Americans still opted to go with a different inflection — not that she ultimately cares one way or another.
To hear Theron discuss the many variations of uttering her surname, check out our chat with her above. Atomic Blonde is in theaters this Friday.
Charlize Theron in ‘Atomic Blonde’: Watch a trailer:
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