Cameron Penner

Charlize Theron finds peace and joy through her camera.

Even though they may be strange, senior Charlize Theron writes down her dreams in her Notes app in hopes that one day, they will be portrayed in her self-directed future films. She believes that all of them have the potential to create a great movie, even if the real dream only had a short amount of screen time. While writing down these dreams, she begins to plan out the shot, considering what song to use, which characters to include in the frame, and how the landscape will appear in the shot. Without drawing it out, she knows exactly how she wants it to look. One specific example of this dream-scene painting contains mermaids out at sea.

“A group of five people starts with two girls: mermaids,” Charlize said. “They’re just exploring the ocean until pirates appear, and they swim away fast. [Soon,] they [meet] a guy who is in a little boat. He offers to give them a ride—he’s not human, but doesn’t tell [the mermaids] that. As the story goes on, they notice the man keeps dipping his hands into the water, which does something weird, but they don’t know what. The main mermaid asks what he’s doing, and he says nothing, just that he likes to feel the water…I like the concept, but I don’t know how this story would go. There’s no storyline, it’s just random.” 

These dreams she has may be chaotic, but with enough planning, she believes that it’s possible to add more details to them in the future to create something great. 

The movies that Charlize enjoys in her own time tend to be on the comedic and horror side, because emotions, specifically sadder ones, often make Charlize uncomfortable. This applies especially to movies; she dislikes it when a movie makes her cry. As much as she may dislike the emotions she feels from those movies, she can still appreciate the art of the film. 

“I love the imagery [and words] in movies,” Charlize said. “Words are so powerful in movies. I’ll be watching a movie, and they’ll have some good quotes, text, and scriptwriting. But I think what I really love the most in movies is when a movie has a solemn feeling, and it’s just a wide shot. If I see a wide shot of anything, like the Hollywood Sign, that really gets to me.”

There is one movie in particular that replicates how Charlize feels, and that is Anora (2024). From the advertisement, many people had the idea that Anora was going to have the same feel as any other raunchy teen movie, but after watching it, Charlize realized that she was completely wrong. 

“I think a lot of people initially thought that it was going to be like Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) and any other of those teen movies,” Charlize said. “But I think it might become a classic, because it is just filled with these wide shots, and it is so deep. It did make me cry a lot.”

When it comes to classic films, she would consider herself far from an expert; she has watched a handful of ‘classics’, but she doesn’t limit herself to only those movies. When defining a ‘good movie,’ she would say it’s deemed as good if she truly connects with it. 

“A lot of times I tend to literally be on my phone and playing games [while] watching movies,” Charlize said. “If [a movie] makes me stop and pause and listen, that’s what makes [it good] to me. I could [be watching] a kid’s movie, and it would be really funny, but the ratings would be kind of bad. Then [I watch] a classic movie, and that will be really good too. It all depends on me. I think a good movie is whatever the audience wants to watch.”

Charlize has yet to complete her top ten favorite movies of all time list, but she does have six out of the ten already placed. Her list covers a plethora of genres from horror to romance to comedy, including films—not ranked—such as Mother (2017), Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Train to Busan (2016), Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), Not Another Teen Movie (2001), and Project X (2012). 

Regarding the recent film industry, Charlize is not satisfied with big-name streaming and film companies such as Netflix and Disney+. She is frustrated that these companies are creating films that are marketed to sell, not films that are creative.

“I think Netflix is pushing out a lot of [movies] that they know are going to be popular,” Charlize said. “Even then, some of them do fail, but it’s very generic. And with Disney+, they want to make everything live-action. They didn’t listen to the people by making Snow White [(2025)]…They kind of just dropped a bunch of flops. I get it—money is a huge thing, but I do believe that film is an art.”

She is not completely disappointed, however—there are many movies produced recently that she has really enjoyed, covering a multitude of genres, such as K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025), The Substance (2024), and Smile 2 (2024).

Her love for film grew so much that this year, she is dedicating half of her school day to film. Three out of six classes in her day are held in the Film studio: AM FX, Film Projects, and an Independent Study fourth-hour class. However, she didn’t start the year with Film Projects on her schedule. 

“I was in two online classes, and I was feeling too alone; I didn’t have any friends in either of them, [nor was I] talking to anyone,” Charlize said. “So I [switched into] Film Projects, and I started talking to people. As much as I do like to work alone and do my own thing, I still enjoy collaborating with people and sharing ideas.”

Each year at FHC, a select few seniors returning to the FX classes are allowed to take on a famous year-long project: the senior video. Charlize was one of the chosen seniors, along with seniors Kennedy Doubler and Ford Fauson.

Some people may see the Senior Video as ‘too big a project’, which could be stressful—but Charlize doesn’t view it as normal schoolwork. In fact, she dislikes being without a project.

“It doesn’t feel like work to me. I actually really enjoy it,” Charlize said. “As much as people say they don’t like the stress, I actually do like the stress and anxiety of it. It’s not a bad [feeling], it’s a good one. I enjoy having a deadline.” 

Before Charlize could truly grasp her love for making movies, she was completely undecided about where her future would take her. She figured it would be best if she just got her license for real estate and sold houses, but ever since taking FX, she has had a plan for where her future lies. Her increased interest in film was not inherited from a family member or introduced by a friend—it really just came to her on a random morning this past summer.

“I woke up one day and I said, ‘I think I could do this forever,’” Charlize said.