Charlize Theron sent her 2 Days In The Valley co-star Teri Hatcher a case of "cheap beer" after making contact with the actress during a fight scene.

Theron made her big Hollywood debut in the 1996 drama and admits she feared her career was over before it started after she clocked her co-star in the face.

"I hit her really bad...," the Oscar winner tells W magazine, "and because it was Teri Hatcher, who was a star, and I was this bleached-blonde-Amazonian, catsuit-wearing nobody who was punching her in the face, I was like a wild animal.

"Back then I didn’t know how to hone in my energy and I was knocking over lights. I had no concept of a set. I connected right with Teri Hatcher’s face.

"I felt terrible about it. I had no money and sent her some cheap beer the next day. Sorry, Teri."

But that scene, considered one of the 20 best movie fight sequences by movie news and reviews website Rotten Tomatoes, helped Charlize perfect her acting skills, especially when it came to onscreen violence, and when it came to preparing for her all-action new movie she was all set.

"It’s like dance, and I grew up taking ballet," she explains. "I love discipline. I function really well within the parameters of discipline and knowing what to do."

And she's glad to say the fight scenes in her new film were all careful choreographed.

"Other than Teri Hatcher, I had only connected my fist with a girl’s face once in my entire life, so I had to do a lot of training for this film."