Charlize Theron Auditioned For Showgirls, 'Didn't Mind All The Nudity'

Charlize Theron dodged a bullet, then.

Paul Verhoeven has been speaking about how she auditioned for the part of Nomi in his erotic drama ‘Showgirls’, the role which eventually went to former child star Elizabeth Berkley.

'Robocop’ director Verhoeven added that Theron, who was unknown at the time, very nearly got it, and was unperturbed by the amount of full-frontal nudity required.

Speaking to the New York Daily News, he said: “Charlize also auditioned, and I don’t recall her having any problem with the nudity at all.

“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.

“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.

“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!”

Indeed, the movie was mercilessly slated by critics, and saw Berkley consigned to the straight-to-DVD market thereafter.

Since its release in 1995 (it was also a box office bomb, making nearly $38 million, but costing $45 million) it’s become something of a kitsch cult classic.

On its re-release on Blu-ray in 2010, some critics even went as far as to describe it as an effective satire.

Verhoeven himself took the blame for the movie’s failure in a retrospective for Rolling Stone last month.

“People have, of course, criticized [Berkley] for being over-the-top in her performance. Most of that comes from me,” he wrote.

“I pushed it in that direction. Good or not good, I was the one who asked her to exaggerate everything - every move - because that was the element of style that I thought would work for the movie.

“Even now, when I see the movie, I think it’s shot in an extremely elegant way. There are beautiful movements of the camera, and beautiful choreography of how the camera worked with the actors and how the actors moved.

“I think it’s Felliniesque, certainly, in its over-the-top stuff.”

That might be taking it a bit far…

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