Charlize Theron: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

3. Mavis Gary - Young Adult (2011)

Young Adult represented the moment when Theron's particular brand of woundedness came to full fruition, and she is completely captivating in it. It feels very much like Theron was hand-picked for the role - or even more that the character was written with her firmly in mind.

That's not to say that she is a stagnant, self-involved 30-something suffering an existential panic, but there's just something right about the fit of her persona and Diablo Cody's distinctly nasty script. Perhaps because of the writer, there is also something tangibly personal about both the material and the performance, and that is testament to the authenticity of it.

Impressively, despite being invited to "ruin" her own image in conventional terms, with a nasty role (something the likes of Will Smith never really sought), Theron doesn't do so cheaply by making herself "ugly". She's just broken, stuck on a loop like the casette mix tape she hangs on to as a symbol of her former relationship with Patrick Wilson. The prom queen who peaked in that moment and hasn't left it, and it's spell-binding.