Charlize Theron: I'm No Movie Star

Don't call Charlize Theron anything but an actress. "When somebody calls me a movie star, I worry a bit," she says. "It used to be about the work, but now it means you show up at the Oscars and look good."

The South African beauty, 34, who moved to New York to model and pursue ballet as a teenager, admits she started acting when a knee injury forced her to quit dancing.

"The whole model-turned-actress thing doesn't have a good track record," she tells the Style section of the U.K's Sunday Times newspaper, "Today, younger girls are addicted to the fame, but that is not me. I keep all that stuff private."

And true to her word, there is one thing Charlize refuses to discuss, her mother Gerda's shooting of her alcoholic father Charles when she was just 15. Police ruled the killing as self-defense and Gerda was never charged.

"It's a tattoo I cannot erase," she states. "People always bring it up, but I'm not comfortable, because it concerns others."

However, she's happy to talk about her eight-year relationship with Irish actor Stuart Townsend, revealing, "My universe shifted when we got together, and life has been better since."

And the star of The Road (out Nov. 25) admits that there's only one way to really impress her man. And yes, it involves sports.

With the soccer World Cup being held in her native South Africa Charlize, marvels, "I tell my boyfriend I have been nominated for an Oscar, and he goes, 'That's nice, babe.' But I say I can get tickets for the World Cup and he is all 'Holy s***!'. All of a sudden, I'm a goddess."