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Sure, Charlize Theron is obviously Oscar bait now.
The South African-born star's first high-profile follow-up to her Oscar-winning turn in Monster (2003) is North Country (opening Oct. 21), a drama in which Theron (right, with Frances McDormand) plays a grimy, unglamorous Minnesota miner who files a landmark class-action sexual harassment suit. Whether or not the movie proves to be an award-winner or even a hit, no one doubts Theron's ability to carry a movie on her slender shoulders. The fact that, two months from now, she'll swing across the screen in a skintight catsuit as a sleek assassin in Aeon Flux only underscores her versatility and perceived box office appeal.
It's easy to forget, however, that not so long ago, Theron's place in Hollywood was that of an exotic import, a piece of beautiful arm candy for male costars in undistinguished movies like Trial and Error (1997), Reindeer Games, and The Legend of Bagger Vance (both 2000). ''Charlize got a lot of roles where she was just the attractive squeeze,'' her Devil's Advocate director, Taylor Hackford, tells Entertainment Weekly. ''She had to do Monster to say, 'Forget the looks and look at this.'''
Still, there were hints of greatness during the actress' early career, moments in so-so movies where she impressively depicted longing, desperation, rage, and other colors of the full spectrum she finally would display as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster. The gallery that follows lists the five best among those early performances, where Theron, now 30, outshone the material and offered a promise of triumphs to come.
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