Charlize Theron reacts to Mick Fanning shark attack

Charlize Theron had a busy day on Monday in Los Angeles, having just flown in from the U.K. set of The Huntsman to promote her Gillian Flynn adaptation, Dark Places (in theaters August 7).

But you know what the South African actress wasn't too busy for? Catching wind of Sunday's viral Mick Fanning shark attack in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa during a surfing competition (Fanning escaped on live TV after punching said shark in the back).

As it happens, the scary shark attack happened in her old summer stomping grounds.
"It's a place I used to go as a kid on summer vacations," she told Paste BN. "We had a house (near Jeffreys Bay). As a kid we would swim in the ocean and you would hear ... the lifeguards blowing on their whistles and all the kids would just run out of the water.

We would just stand there and we would watch the shark -- this was so sick -- as the wave would come up, we would watch the shark swim way all the way (out of the bay) and then the whistle would go off again. And we would just run back into the water!"
This must be why South Africans are so tough, we joked. "That is why," she deadpanned.