Apex: Charlize Theron stuns fans by climbing a vertical billboard in NYC

Charlize Theron escalated to new heights for the promotion of her new movie. She showed off her rock climbing expertise over a billboard in New York’s Times Square as a promotional stunt for the upcoming Netflix thriller Apex.

On April 24, the film’s producer-star could be seen on Friday, ascending the vertical structure with a full set of climbing gear. The Times Square crowd watched from below as Theron steadily made her way to the top of the billboard and triumphantly surveyed her surroundings.  In a statement from Netflix shared with PEOPLE, the streaming platform said that the star “spent weeks working with iconic rock climber Beth Rodden, preparing for the film’s steep, high-risk terrain.”

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, written by Jeremy Robbins, and starring Eric Bana, Apex follows Charlize’s Sasha into the Australian wilderness on a solo kayaking adventure. She encounters Egerton’s Ben, who lures her into “a white-knuckle fight for survival against a ruthless predator,” per an official synopsis.

Theron and Egerton, including the filmmaking team, shot the movie on location in Australia’s New South Wales, including the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney.

Last December, the Oscar winner told PEOPLE that she only got into climbing for the first time in order to film Apex. “I had never climbed, except for trees when I was a kid in Africa,” the mom of two said at the time. “It’s great. It’s so much fun.”