Charlize Theron says traumatic moment when mum shot abusive dad 'formed her'

Charlize Theron has revealed that she drew on the traumatic childhood memory of witnessing her mum shoot dead her abusive dad for her 'Dark Places' film role.

In the movie based on a best-selling book from Gillian Flynn, the 39-year-old South Africa actress' character Libby, who saw her mother and sisters killed by a Satanic cult when she was eight, testify in court about the killings, Us Magazine reported.

The 'Monster' star ssaid in an interview that there's definitely an acknowledgment on her part that she had an experience of, a very traumatic experience, an event, in her life and somehow it's "formed her."

Theronadded that it really is examining what a trauma like that would do to a child, especially when she's expected to speak about it and that's definitely something that she can relate to, that's definitely something that she has experienced in her life.

She first went public about her childhood trauma in a 2004 interview with Diane Sawyer, stating that she was home from boarding school when she saw her mum Gerda kill her dad Charles. Gerda said she shot her abusive husband in self-defence after he threatened mother and child with a gun while drunk. South African police accepted the mother's account and no charges were brought.