A summer switch up! Charlize Theron looks like a new woman after ditching her signature blonde hairdo for a dark-colored mullet.
The actress, 46, debuted the look at her annual Africa Outreach Project Block Party on Saturday, June 11. The fresh cut featured messy bangs, tapered sides and a layered finish at the back. The style is a dramatic change from the Monster star’s recognizable blonde bob. To complement the new hairdo, Theron wore a crisp white dress shirt, straight-leg jeans and black heels.
While the producer’s mullet may come as a shock, Theron has lived life as a brunette in the past. For the 2019 Oscars, Theron debuted a coffee-colored ‘do on the red carpet. She’s also never shied away from a dramatic haircut. In 2013, she stepped out with a pixie cut for the 85th annual Academy Awards. In the years that followed, Theron molded the cut into a bob and later a lob. For the premiere of Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015, Theron looked radiant with a shoulder-length style that featured a voluminous side part.
The South Africa native has also undergone several transformations for the big screen. For Fast and Furious 9, which premiered in 2021, Theron, who played Cipher in the film, rocked a blunt bowl cut, which was inspired by supermodels of the ’90s, her stylist, Adir Abergel, told HollywoodLife in a 2019 interview. “I was pulling a lot of references from the ’90s … The one I did for Charlize was a different take on it that felt a little bit more feminine. It felt a little bit more modern,” Abergel explained.
Her wildest transformation, however, is perhaps her full-face makeover to play Megyn Kelly in the 2019 flick Bombshell. Special effects designer Kazu Hiro completely morphed Theron into the news anchor, 51, with the help of makeup, nostril plugs, tape and other prosthetics. “My main goal was to find out how people recognize Megyn Kelly as Megyn Kelly, and Charlize as Charlize. So, almost like filling a void to make Charlize look like Megyn,” Hiro told Interview magazine in 2020. “Most of America knows what Megyn looks like, because she is on TV a lot. It’s very easy to compare. So, I was really careful about how to design it and what the outcome would look like.”
(The film focuses on the sexual harassment scandal that ended Roger Ailes’ career as the CEO and chairman of Fox News in 2016, one year before his death. Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, who was played by Nicole Kidman, were among the employees who publicly accused their boss of misconduct.)