10 Strangest Reasons Actors Turned Down Famous Movie Roles
7. Charlize Theron Was Offended At Being Offered Wonder Woman's Mother - Wonder Woman
The Role
Hippolyta, the Queen of Themyscira and mother of Diana/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) - a graceful, wise pillar of strength who guides Diana to become the superhero the world needs.
The part was originally offered to Charlize Theron, and after she turned it down, producer Zack Snyder lobbied for Connie Nielsen to be cast in the role. Nielsen went on to reprise the part in both versions of Justice League and also Wonder Woman 1984.
Why She Turned It Down
When addressing rumours that she had been in the running for the part of Wonder Woman herself, Theron confirmed that she hadn't been offered Diana Prince but in fact Hippolyta:
"This is a great of example of how Hollywood slaps you in the face when you start aging... So somebody had said to me, 'Oh, there's action on this thing, Wonder Woman - we just want to make you aware of it.' And I was like, 'I'm just not familiar with it… I mean, what does Wonder Woman do?' And this person said, 'No, it's for Wonder Woman's mom.'"
While Theron is an entire decade younger than Nielsen, and Hollywood unfortunately treats women over the age of 35 with a distressing disposability, it's also important to note that Amazonians don't age in quite the same way that regular humans do.
As such, casting Theron as Diana's mother is less an insult than it's saying that Theron has the gravitas and tenacity as an actress to play that sort of commanding role - though somewhat understandably, she'd rather play the Diana part instead.
In retrospect she seems pretty philosophical about it all, though:
"It was fine... It was just the defining moment where I crossed over [with age]. And I wasn't fully aware of it."