‘Basic Instinct’ Director Once Felt Charlize Theron’s Career Would’ve Been Ruined if She Did His Film
Actor Charlize Theron had the opportunity to star in a movie directed by Basic Instinct filmmaker Paul Verhoeven. Theron didn’t get the role, which Verhoeven felt was a good thing since it might’ve tanked her career early.
Charlize Theron’s career was unknowingly saved thanks to not starring in this Paul Verhoeven film
In 1995, Basic Instinct director Paul Verhoeven released another erotic thriller for cinemas in Showgirls. The project starred actor Elizabeth Berkley as an aspiring showgirl determined to climb to the top of the entertainment industry.
Before Berkley could fully commit to the project, however, Theron was up for the role. The actor confided that her audition was liked well enough, but ultimately Verhoeven didn’t think she was suited for the film.
“It was the second audition I ever went to. From what I hear, they really liked me. I think the talks fell through with the actress [Elizabeth Berkley] that ended up doing it, and so they reopened it up and started casting it again, and that’s when I came in. And then they somehow sorted out that deal. But at some point [director] Paul [Verhoeven] was interested in me doing it, yeah,” Theron once told MTV News.
Verhoeven once corroborated Theron’s claims. But he also went into a little more detail about why she didn’t get the part.
“She was good and wanted the part, but basically she was not well known enough at the time and just did not fit the part, so we said no,” he said in an interview with New York Daily News (via Contact Music).
Given what happened to Berkley after she did Showgirls, Verhoeven felt Theron losing the role was a blessing in disguise.
“I have full respect for Charlize, but if she had been offered the part then she would probably have been chewed up in the same way they treated Elizabeth,” he said. “She was very lucky that she did not get the part. I wish Charlize congratulations for that because it would have been a miserable 20 years for her!”
Paul Verhoeven felt he had to apologize to Elizabeth Berkley for ‘Showgirls’
Showgirls experienced a brutal reception from audiences and critics alike. Because she was the star and face of the movie, Berkley also found herself attacked by the media. It was a response she had no way of predicting or anticipating when she first read the film’s script.
“I wasn’t looking for shock value,” Berkley said in an interview with People. “That wasn’t my intention. When I first read about the role, it was a visceral moment. I thought, ‘that’s mine.'”
The backlash against the Saved by the Bell star began feeling personal.
“Of course it was disappointing that it didn’t do well, but there was so much cruelty around it,” Berkley said. “I was bullied. And I didn’t understand why I was being blamed. The job as an actor is to fulfill the vision of the director. And I did everything I was supposed to do.”
She was also disappointed that no one seemed to come to her defense during the media’s lynching. But Verhoeven did eventually apologize to Berkley for her experience.
“Hollywood turned their backs on her. If somebody has to be blamed, it should be me because I thought that it was interesting to portray someone like that,” he said.
Charlize Theron knew she was in trouble by starring in ‘Aeon Flux’
Theron managed to inadvertently salvage her career by avoiding Showgirls. But years later, she risked her career again by starring in the sci-fi feature Aeon Flux. In the process of filming the movie, she was fully aware of its problems.
“With that one, I don’t know if I had the answers for how to [fix it], but I definitely knew we were in trouble. I wasn’t a producer on it, and I didn’t really have the experience to say what I believe Tom Cruise has maybe said for the past 20 years, which is, ‘Shut this s*** down, get four more writers on it and let’s figure this out,’” Theron told The Hollywood Reporter.
She decided to do the show Arrested Development afterwards to help heal her career if need be. It helped that she was a huge fan of the show.
“And I just f***ing loved that show, and this is going to sound so ‘poor me,’ but I do feel like sometimes, as women, we get one shot and I knew that [the 2005 action flick] Aeon Flux was going to be a f***ing flop. I knew it from the beginning, that’s why I did Arrested Development,” she said.
