# The 2016 Paul Verhoeven movie Hollywood wanted nothing to do with: “Why bother, you know?”

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-2016-paul-verhoeven-movie-hollywood-wanted-nothing-to-do-with-why-bother-you-know/
- Published: 2026-08-06T08:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-08-25T03:45:12+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-2016-paul-verhoeven-movie-hollywood-wanted-nothing-to-do-with/
- Topics: Americas, Entertainment, Film, World

## Key points

- US actors declined Elle's lead role over its rape scene.
- Verhoeven moved production to France to get it made.
- Isabelle Huppert earned an Oscar nod and Golden Globe for it.

## Summary

This piece traces Paul Verhoeven's career-long willingness to court controversy, culminating in the difficulty he faced getting his 2016 thriller Elle made in Hollywood. American actors reportedly turned down the lead role because of a central rape scene, forcing the Dutch director to relocate the production to France, where he cast Isabelle Huppert instead. Verhoeven has framed the move as reflecting a broader creative freedom he found in France that Hollywood no longer offered him.

The article charts Verhoeven's provocative filmography from 1973's Turkish Delight through Hollywood hits Robocop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct, to the panned but cult Showgirls, before he left Hollywood around 2000. Relocating to France paid off for Elle, which the country selected as its Oscar submission, earning Huppert an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe win.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.