Charlize Theron on Apartheid: ‘I Benefited Because of My Right Skin Colour’

Hollywood actor and producer Charlize Theron admits to benefiting during the apartheid administration because she had the “right” skin colour.

During a recent interview on the National Public Radio (NPR) podcast, Theron opened up about growing up in a farm in Benoni, during under the apartheid regime.

“It’s a lot to reconcile with when you realise that you benefited under an administration, a nation, a country because you had the ‘right’ skin colour,” said the 44-year-old actor.

“I benefited. My life was more comfortable because of the suffering of a lot of people who just by chance were born in the ‘wrong’ skin colour. That was a lot for me to carry, it still is. It’s something I’ll carry for the rest of my life.”

She highlighted that as a child she was not fully aware of the impact of apartheid until in her teens because she was always surrounded by black people who lived in her parents’ farm.

She added that sometimes when her friends’ parents discover that she has black people living on her family farm, they would not inviting her for sleepovers.

The ‘Bombshell’ star also touched on the trauma she suffered as a result of apartheid.

“I didn’t really truly understood what any of this really did to me as a child until I was in my mid thirties. I went to therapy for the first time because of a relationship that was failing.

“And what discovered while in therapy trying to save my relationship was that I have trauma being a young child growing up in South Africa during the apartheid era,” said the actor.