I Thought Hollywood Was Climbing-Clueless. Then I Taught Charlize Theron How to Climb.

Like most climbers, I don’t have much experience with Hollywood. I hovered on the periphery over 25 years ago, when the story of my escape from kidnappers in Kyrgyzstan was optioned a few times by Hollywood producers. My brief experience mostly consisted of agents in purple suits, fad diets at meetings, lots of talk, and zero execution. It seemed like everyone had the best intentions. But it was commonplace to talk a big talk, then walk no walk.

So naturally, when I was sitting in the car last fall at school pick-up and a message popped onto my phone asking if I would be interested in coaching Charlize Theron for an upcoming film of hers, I figured it was spam and nothing would come of it.

But something did come of it, and it ended up being one of the most rewarding and surprising experiences I have ever had.

Why has Hollywood historically misrepresented climbing?

Until working with the crew from Apex, the Netflix film for which Charlize Theron needed to learn how to climb, I had low expectations of how climbing showed up in films. My generalized take on Hollywood climbing films was that it was Jaws on steroids, but in climbing form. Everything and anything that could be sensationalized, would be sensationalized. I distinctly remember walking out of the theatre while trying to watch Vertical Limit because I was so over it that I couldn’t even make it through to the end.

In Hollywood’s defense, until recently, climbing was still somewhat of a fringe sport. We’ve happily worn the title of rabble rousers and societal outcasts, turning up our noses at norms that restrict our freedom in any way. I’m not quite sure why Hollywood felt the need to also cast us as adrenaline junkies constantly flirting with death.

While that mentality does exist occasionally (and unfortunately) within climbing, in my opinion, it’s not something to be celebrated, let alone enhanced. But, I get it. I watched Jaws as a kid and now I’m terrified of sharks. Anytime I’m on a boat in the ocean, I fear that it will be bitten in half. Humans love drama and Hollywood often feeds off of fear. So climbers on the big screens become 24/7 daredevils.

After a few emails and phone calls with the producer of Apex, my view of Hollywood and their approach to climbing began to change. Instead of leading with dramatic questions on how a wild and terrible thing could unfurl on screen, the producer and crew were in the weeds with me about climbing. We talked logistics—how this would look, how that could happen, what would you say here, or do there. They were truly trying to understand what us climbers devote our lives and passions to.

What was it like teaching Charlize Theron to climb?

A couple weeks before I went to Los Angeles to climb with Charlize, the director, Balt (Baltasar Kormákur), and the Director of Photography, Larry (Lawrence Sher), came up to Yosemite, where I live, to understand what big wall climbing was about.

Like most people who come to Yosemite for the first time, they were awestruck with the beauty and grandeur of the park. They couldn’t believe that people climbed the walls flanking the valley, but not in an “only idiots or adrenaline junkies would do that” type of way. Instead, Balt and Larry showed a total respect for the craft. We hiked to several locations, talking the entire day about logistics, training, and lighting.

In early November 2024, I arrived in LA totally uncertain of what to expect. Charlize and I were going to climb several days per week for a month at various gyms throughout the city, depending on schedules.

Again, I’m not someone who knows celebrities or movie culture. Of course, I knew who Charlize was, and what an incredible actor she is (case in point: her Oscar for Monster). But beyond that, I didn’t know much about her personal life. Purposefully, I chose not to “research” her, like so many of my friends thought I should. I prefer to meet people and form a relationship with them, instead of bringing preconceptions with me, and I thought this should be no different. But to say that I wasn’t nervous would be an understatement. It was, after all, the Charlize Theron.

The first day, I arrived at the gym almost two hours early. I sure as heck didn’t want to make her wait on me while I was stuck in LA traffic. The least I could do was survey the climbing gym and make sure it had what we needed to start climbing. Plus, at least climbing around could calm the flock of butterflies swirling in my stomach about what I would say to Charlize when we first met.

But all of the build-up was, of course, for not. She walked in wearing nearly the exact same thing as me (athletic pants and a sweatshirt). After 30 minutes of chatting about climbing and kids and life, I felt like this month climbing with her was going to be a pleasure. From day one, she was excited and thought it was fun—she really is a natural.

Each day, we’d focus on something different, but the entire time I made sure to stay true to her natural climbing ability. Perhaps it’s her dance background that makes her really good on her feet and with balance—she really excels at technical climbing. Her body awareness is incredible and it didn’t take much to encourage certain movements before she started to look like a seasoned climber.

In our sessions together, we did both bouldering and toproping. While Charlize never led a climb with me, she did practice clipping a lot so she would know how to do it if she needed to for the movie. I also spent time teaching her about gear, rappelling, belaying, and how to clip/unclip from a harness.

By the end, climbing with Charlize felt like climbing with one of my girlfriends. She has kids around the same age, so we’d talk about parenthood, climbing technique, and this and that. Each day, conversation unfolded naturally. After my month in LA with Charlize, I returned home to Yosemite as an even bigger fan of hers than when I started.

Before Charlize, I’d never worked with an adult whose literal job was to learn the craft of climbing. I knew Charlize often had to study new crafts and sports for her various roles, but I had no idea how good she was at picking up new skills so quickly. It was refreshing to see that she seemed genuinely interested in learning how to climb, from the questions she was asking, to her curiosity about how to approach different routes or moves. If only professional climbers were so open to feedback and learning! I wondered: How far could we go?

So, does Apex depict climbing accurately?

I haven’t seen the entire Apex film yet, but I have seen the climbing footage. From my work on the film, I know how serious the whole cast and crew were about getting everything right. I would get texts and phone calls from the stunt coordinator, Charlize, and the producer on set. They’d send me clips of what they were thinking, asking if it would be realistic or something climbers would actually do.

It felt like a privilege to try and help them accurately represent climbing on the big screen. After watching the climbing footage in the film, I really feel like they did a good job—and I’m anxiously awaiting the release to watch the whole movie.

Over 20 years after I walked out of the theater during Vertical Limit, my experience working with Charlize and the Apex crew gave me faith that the tides are shifting when it comes to Hollywood and climbing. I’m uncertain if it’s because climbing has become more mainstream—or if perhaps, I just got lucky with Charlize. Maybe other films and actors aren’t necessarily as dedicated to learning.

Regardless, if you go see Apex—before you start critiquing the portrayal of your passion in a Netflix film—just remember how hard everyone worked on getting our sport “right.” There was no shortcutting or glossing over things. Charlize and Apex really wanted to do climbing justice, and I believe they did just that.

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