The movie Charlize Theron quit because she hated the script: “I don’t think she was a fan”
One of the most exciting things a movie actor can do is take on a role that completely subverts the reputation they have built up over the years with total immersion in the life they’re portraying to leave an indelible mark on cinema, and that’s exactly what Charlize Theron did with Monster back in 2003.
At the end of the 1990s, Theron was starting to make waves in the industry after a couple of stand-out appearances in the likes of the Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino horror The Devil’s Advocate and the 1999 Michael Caine drama The Cider House Rules, which won two Oscars, netting a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ award for Caine.
One overarching theme to her feedback however was her staggering beauty; there was simply no getting away from it. Much as her talent was beginning to be recognised as a uniquely gifted actor, she was constantly trying to avoid being typecast, something she had fought against for several years already at that point.
She took on films of many different genres during that period: a Woody Allen comedy, an action thriller with Ben Affleck called Reindeer Games, and the Robert De Niro drama Men of Honor. But a year before everything changed for her, she very nearly appeared in a comedy that would eventually change Reese Witherspoon’s life for good, and that’s Sweet Home Alabama.
Witherspoon was suddenly hot property after her smash hit Legally Blonde in 2001 and was looking for projects to make the most of her fame, but Sweet Home Alabama, which told the tale of a New York fashion designer returning to her roots and finding love, was initially attached to an entirely different actress, Theron.
Director Andy Tennant mentioned, “Charlize and her production company were the original principals behind the project. They were developing it for Charlize to star. When I did the rewrite with [writing partner] Rick Parks, I don’t think she was a fan, and so everybody parted ways.”
This falling through served as a boon for all involved as the role was one that Witherspoon excelled in, making it a major box office hit, and it put her on the path to a ‘Best Actress’ Oscar win three years later for the music biopic Walk the Line. Theron, meanwhile, took on a remake of The Italian Job before she signed on to do Monster in 2003.
A biographical drama telling the story of Florida prostitute and serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who shot dead seven men in the early 1990s, required Theron to undergo considerable physical modifications in terms of gaining a huge amount of weight, shaving her eyebrows and wearing prosthetic teeth in order to convincingly play the character. Unrecognisable as the blonde bombshell from her past movies, the decision to take the role proved to be a masterstroke.
Theron won a ‘Best Actress’ Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award for her performance in the film, which has since gone down as some of the finest ever committed to the big screen. It turned her into one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, which found her further acclaim and award nominations for another gritty drama, North Country, in 2005. Now, 20 years on, she has a back catalogue of hits including Bombshell, Atomic Blonde and Snow White and the Huntsman, and is poised to be seen in Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey.
Witherspoon, meanwhile, became one of the richest and most influential female stars in the industry, with a net worth of half a billion dollars, a movie production company, a retail brand and a successful book club. Both actresses followed their guts and paved a path for themselves that suited their acting sensibilities. That’s not to say Theron can’t do comedy, but imagining Sweet Home Alabama without the Witherspoon’s naturally occurring Southern lilt with a touch of annoyance inherited from life as a New York City elite feels criminal.
