Thandie Newton turned down Charlie’s Angels after producer pushed racist stereotypes in meeting
The Westworld was in the running to take the role of Alex in the 2000 reboot of Charlie’s Angels, which went on to rake in over $260 (£207m) million at the box office.
However, she dropped out of the project after uncomfortable meetings with director Joseph McGinty Nichol, aka McG, and then head of Sony Pictures Amy Pascal.
In a profile with Vulture, the 47-year-old actress explained that she was first turned off Charlie’s Angels after McG explained that the first shot would look like yellow lines on a road, before pulling back to realise it was the stitching on her jeans ‘because the denim is so tight on your ass it’s going to look like tarmac’.
Newton went on to have a meeting with Amy Pascal, who made racist stereotypes about Thandie’s possible character – suggesting they’d have to change the university-educated Alex to fit her.
Thandie recalled Pascal saying: ‘Look, I don’t mean to be politically incorrect, but the character as written and you playing the role…I just feel like we’ve got to make sure that it’s believable.’
