Charlize Theron is on a roll at the moment. The critically-acclaimed actor and producer, clearly energised after shutting down those “bullshit” Sean Penn marriage rumours, appeared on The One Show earlier this week.

And, while she was there, she gave presenters Alex Jones and Gethin Jones a lesson in how to pronounce her name correctly.

Welcoming Theron onto the show via video link from her home in Los Angeles, Alex began: “Good to see you, and welcome to The One Show by the way, because you’ve never been one with us before.”

“Thank you for having me,” Theron replied.

Rather than move onto Theron’s new film project, Netflix’s The Old Guard, though, Alex continued: “We’ve had a thing about your name today. Am I saying it right?”

“Yes, fantastic,” Theron replied.

Job done, right? Wrong. 

It was at this point that Gethin interjected, saying: “I was worried about this today Charlize.

“We were talking about it and everyone calls you Charlize The-RON and I was going no, I’m pretty sure it’s Charlize TEH-Ron.

“But you’re quite calm about people saying it in a different way.”

Clearly realising that this was going to become A Thing, no matter what, Theron decided to give it to The One Show presenters straight. Presumably, so she could get back to the matter at hand: promoting her new Netflix movie, the trailer for which you can view below.

“Honestly, the truth of the matter is [that neither version is] even remotely close to the real pronunciation,” revealed Theron.

“Can we hear the real pronunciation?” Alex asked.

Theron, ever the professional, indulged the presenters, and explained that her name is actually pronounced more like the word “throne”, with a slightly lilted roll of the “r”.

“And is that an Afrikaans name?” Alex replied.

“It’s actually French. It’s a French name,” said Theron.

Right. Well, as one viewer of the show tweeted: “Nothing like saying hello to someone by debating how to say their name for five minutes in front of them.”

If you’re more interested in Theron’s upcoming film than you are the pronunciation of her name, it’s worth noting that The Old Guard will be released on Netflix on 10 July.

In it, she plays a centuries-old warrior called Andy, who leads a covert group of tight-knit mercenaries. But when the team is recruited to take on an emergency mission and their extraordinary abilities are suddenly exposed, it’s up to Andy and Nile (KiKi Layne), the newest soldier to join their ranks, to help the group eliminate the threat of those who seek to replicate and monetise their power by any means necessary.

You can find out more about the film, as well as all the other movies and TV shows coming to Netflix in July 2020, here.

Images: Getty