Oscar-winning South African actress Charlize Theron has spoken in rare detail about the traumatic night when she was 15 years old and her mother shot and killed her alcoholic father as he threatened to kill them both.

In an interview with journalist Lulu Garcia Navarro in Los Angeles, Theron recounted how her father broke into their South African home, shooting through steel doors whilst making it “very clear that he was going to kill us”.

The incident occurred after Theron and her mother had returned from watching a movie. Her father, who had been drinking with his brother at a relative’s house, became enraged after Theron rushed past him to use the bathroom without greeting everyone present.

“I just knew something was different,” Theron said, describing the moment she realised the situation had escalated beyond previous confrontations. “When we got home, I sat down with my mom and I said, ‘I think you’re right. I think you should separate from him.’”

Later that night, when her father arrived home with his brother, Theron could tell from the way he drove onto the property that “something bad was going to happen”.

“He shot through the steel doors to get into the house, making it very clear that he was going to kill us,” the actress recalled. “The verbal messaging was very clear: ‘I’m going to kill you tonight.’”

As her father broke through the first gate, Theron’s mother ran to the safe to retrieve her gun and came into her daughter’s bedroom. The two held the bedroom door with their bodies as he stepped back and began shooting through it.

“Not one bullet hit us. It’s insane when you think about it that way,” Theron said.

Her mother then opened the door and shot one bullet down the hallway that ricocheted seven times, hitting the brother in the hand. She followed Theron’s father to the safe where he was attempting to get more weapons and shot him.

Theron described her father as a “full-blown functioning drunk”, who had built a large bar inside their home where “you always saw him”. She recalled witnessing “really drunk people, like people crawling on the floor kind of drunk” from a very young age.

The household was marked by verbal abuse and long periods of silence between her parents, sometimes lasting three weeks at a time. “My house just went silent. Like no one would even say good morning to each other and I would be so scared to say something,” she said.

Growing up on a 16-acre farm in Benoni during the mid-1980s, Theron also witnessed violence related to apartheid. She recalled seeing “a man burn inside a car on the side of the road” and people with HIV/Aids being “wheelbarrowed” into their house because “they knew my mom would take them to a clinic”.

Despite the trauma, Theron said she is not “haunted by any of this stuff anymore” and has had therapy. She has become a campaigner to prevent gender-based violence.

“I think these things should be talked about because it makes other people not feel alone,” she said. “I thought we were the only people, my mom and I, that this was going on with.”

Reflecting on her relationship with her mother, whom she thanked during her 2004 Oscar acceptance speech for Monster, Theron said: “That night changed it because in retrospect, like once I got out of the shock of it, I realised that she saved my life, which is a big thing.”

The actress also emphasised her gratitude for her South African heritage despite the hardship. “I really truly feel blessed that I came from there. The heart of that country is so unbelievably beautiful on every level. It’s a place filled with joy,” she said.

The interview took place the day after the Oscars as Theron promoted her new film Apex, about a rock climber.

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