Charlize Theron is one of the most charming and versatile actresses in Hollywood, whose talent knows no bounds. Her captivating performances on-screen and her friendly personality off-screen never fail to capture people’s hearts, turning them into her admirers within little to no time of meeting her. She also believes in speaking her heart out, and that’s just what she did when she watched Marvel’s $1.3 billion movie, Black Panther.

Because of her unique background and connection to South Africa, Theron found herself overwhelmed and extremely emotional while watching the 2018 blockbuster as it reminded her of her traumatic childhood.

Why Marvel’s Black Panther Overwhelmed Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron was born and raised in South Africa. And since it was during the apartheid period, she found herself witnessing the extensive racial injustice of that period, which turned her childhood into a traumatic one. Sharing her distressing past and her take on it, she said in an interview,

“I was born and raised in South Africa during the apartheid era. And I am very much a white African who lived and thrived under tremendously dark circumstances. And that really marks you as a person. Whether that’s your ideology or not, you’re living in it. When you’re young, you don’t know anything different. And then you grow up and see the rest of the world—you’re lucky enough, like I was lucky enough, to see the rest of the world—you know something is wrong but you don’t necessarily understand the broad-strokes of it. … I didn’t realize until my late 20s, 30s, how much anger I had inside me—and guilt—for just living my life circumstantially in a place that I didn’t necessarily choose.”

Theron went ahead to then detailing about how she felt while first watching Marvel’s Black Panther.

“For me to watch Black Panther as the person I am—and I know this sounds crazy to a lot of people—but it is a very emotional thing, it was a very emotional thing for me to watch it.”

While she carried strong feelings of repressed guilt and anger, Charlize Theron doesn’t want her kids to go through the same situation as her, and she can’t wait to share the movie with them.

Charlize Theron Can’t-Wait For Her Kids To Grow Up To Watch Black Panther

Charlize Theron is blessed with two beautiful young black African-American girls, and she just can’t wait for them to grow up to be able to watch the $1.3 billion movie. She said,

“I had this weird reaction watching it when I said to myself, ‘I cannot wait for my girls to be big enough to share this with them.’ Because it’s so much more than just whether you’re from Africa or whether you’re African American or—it’s such a bigger thing than that, that movie broke so many glass ceilings across the board. Not just the fact that there are women in power and that they’re Black beautiful, strong African-American women, African women … and that my children are gonna benefit from that, but that I got something very cathartic out of that.”

All in all, Charlize Theron felt emotional and grateful that a movie like Black Panther exists to open up doors for so many Black people around the world.