Charlize Theron's kids are ‘not impressed' by her career: ‘Zero respect for me'

New York Post

09-05-2025

Charlize Theron's greatest role doesn't come with accolades.
The actress, 49, recently revealed how her daughters Jackson, 12, and August, 9, feel about their mom's entertainment career.
'My children have zero respect for me,' Theron shared while on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' on Thursday. 'It's just unbelievable, I feel like I'm pretty humble, but every once in a while I'm like 'there's a f–king Oscar right there.' They are so not impressed with me.'
10 Charlize Theron on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live.'
ABC
10 Charlize Theron reveals what her kids think about her career.
ABC
Theron's kids have been more enthralled with a fellow movie star over their famous mom — even after they joined her on set of the new action film 'Old Guard 2.'
10 Charlize Theron.
ABC
'I was picking up my youngest from dance yesterday and we drove past the new 'Mission Impossible' poster where Tom Cruise is hanging onto some yellow plane, and he just looks really cool,' she recalled. 'My kids were with me when I shot 'Old Guard 2' and I worked on this incredibly intricate sequence where we brought in this amazing helicopter pilot, Fred North, and we were gonna choreograph this incredible me fighting helicopters and jumping on this real helicopter and hanging off.'
Theron added, 'Shooting 99% of it on a real helicopter as it's trying to shake me off like a rag doll.'
'We took like two weeks to shoot this sequence,' she explained, 'and I was like, 'Wow, I just did that, that's really amazing.' And my child yesterday just looked at this poster of Tom Cruise and went, 'It's weird, he looks so much cooler than you did when you were hanging off the helicopter.''
10 Charlize Theron and her daughter.
charlizeafrica/Instagram
10 Charlize Theron and her children.
charlizeafrica/Instagram
Of course, the 'Mad Max: Fury Road' star called her little ones out for their observations.
'I was just like, 'I hung off the helicopter, [can I have] some credit?'' teased Theron.
Host Jimmy Kimmel, 57, joked that the actress should pass down her Oscar to whichever child is more 'enthusiastic' about her work.
10 Charlize Theron walks alongside her two daughters.
charlizeafrica/Instagram
10 Charlize Theron on a ride with her daughter.
charlizeafrica/Instagram
'They don't want the Oscar,' Theron explained, to which Kimmel responded, 'Oh, they'll want that Oscar.'
In 2004, Theron took home her first Academy Award for Best Actress at just 28 years old for her role in the thriller 'Monster.'
She became a mom when she adopted her oldest, Jackson, in 2012, and welcomed August three years later.
In 2018, the Golden Globe winner told People she always knew adoption would be her way of becoming a mom after being brought up in South Africa and witnessing orphans in need.
10 Chiwetel Ejiofor and Charlize Theron in 'The Old Guard 2.'
©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
10 Charlize Theron in the 2020 movie 'The Old Guard.'
©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
'I've always wanted to have an open conversation with my kids and I want them to feel like they can come and talk to me about anything,' she expressed at the time. 'When they have brought up something that is inappropriate, I always think, 'Don't be stern. Just be cool because they're bringing this to you. They feel safe enough to bring this to you,' and I want to keep that going.'
Becoming a mother made her appreciate her own mom more, too.
10 Matthias Schoenaerts, Luca Marinelli, and Charlize Theron in 'The Old Guard.'
©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
'When you're actually in [parenthood] and you're experiencing it, the evidence is right there,' the Hollywood star explained. 'You understand how you could have been so much better as a child.'
When things get hard, Theron reminds herself, 'that you can survive this because some of these young people have survived so much.'
'That's the thing that drives me when it gets really dark and I just go, 'Why are we doing this? Does this really matter?''