In 1997, Charlize Theron auditioned for her first Disney movie. She was told she was too “aggressively sexy” for the part

Charlize Theron was initially barred from auditioning for Disney’s *Mighty Joe Young* because producers saw her early roles as relying on sex appeal and considered her too intense for the part. After meeting her, producer Tom Jacobson changed his mind, and Theron was cast, helping show she could play characters beyond the glamorous roles she had been offered.

At the time, Theron had appeared in *2 Days in the Valley* and *That Thing You Do!*; *The Devil’s Advocate*, which later drew greater attention to her dramatic ability, had not yet been released. Theron told the casting team that she had grown up on a farm, while Jacobson later recalled that she impressed them in person. The 1998 adventure film, starring Dennis Quaid and an animatronic gorilla, flopped at the box office but gave Theron a role that challenged her image.