An actor may become desperate to play a part if they fall in love with a character. If that is the case, they might do anything to get a job. Just like Charlize Theron, who has never restricted her acting to a particular genre, she once had to chase Seth MacFarlane to cast her in his 2014 Western black comedy film, A Million Ways to Die in the West.

The $80 million film also starred MacFarlane, Neil Patrick Harris, Sarah Silverman, and Liam Neeson. Critics gave the movie mixed to negative reviews, criticizing its length, screenplay, humor, and MacFarlane’s performance and direction.

Charlize Theron

Theron has never struggled with preventing herself from taking a step that could advance her career. The actress, now 48, gave The Hollywood Reporter an explanation (last year) of why she enjoys “the backbreaking part” of her job while slamming the pretend fame.

Charlize Theron Wanted To Be in Seth MacFarlane’s Film Despite Battling Deadly Illness 

Charlize Theron has a peculiar pattern of getting sick when it comes to her film shooting schedule. It seems as though her body is aware of how crucial filming is to her on an automatic basis. However, this strange power has a downside.

She gave the following response when asked how she felt about often being mentioned in interviews as getting sick on film sets:

“Oh my God, that’s so embarrassing. But, yeah, I never get sick on a movie. Never. It’s like my body goes, ‘Nope, you can’t.’ And then [once we’ve wrapped] I get a cough or full-blown bronchitis or I’m in a cast. Anybody who knows me is like, ‘Oh, you must be done.’ I went on Kimmel a few weeks ago, I’d just come out of shoulder surgery, and I was like, ‘Don’t say anything because every time you’re on this fucking show, you have some story about your f**king thumb or whatever.’ Just act normal and let him hug you.”

Charlize Theron

She appeared to have a pattern of seeking out projects and filmmakers, whether it was Seth MacFarlane or George Miller. She had collaborated with the former on A Million Ways to Die in the West. The actress revealed that the director was not interested in casting her for that film:

“Oh yeah. I mean, MacFarlane didn’t want me for that. I had just come from [making Mad Max in] Namibia with a buzz cut and, as he always says, ‘You had bronchitis’ — he’s like a real germophobe — ‘you had no hair and you’d never been funny.’ And I’m like, ‘I get it. I asked you to take a leap.’ And look, we’re still hanging out. But I feel like I’m very specific, unless you either know me or you’ve worked with me before. I know for sure Jason Reitman would have never worked with me unless he knew me.”

Charlize Theron often makes the joke that she sustains more injuries on sets for non-action movies. She did, however, suffer a herniated disc in her neck while filming on Æon Flux (2005) in Berlin as a result of a fall while performing a series of back handsprings. She had to put on a neck brace for a month because of it.

Charlize Theron

Her thumb caught in another actor’s jacket during a fight scene in The Old Guard (2020), causing her thumb ligament to tear. This required three surgeries and six months in a thumb brace. While Atomic Blonde (2017) was being filmed, no serious accidents occurred, but she did suffer broken teeth from jaw clenching and had to undergo dental surgery to have them extracted:
“I had the removal and I had to put a donor bone in there to heal until I came back, and then I had another surgery to put a metal screw in there.”

A still from A Million Ways to Die in the West

Outside of action movies, she suffered from a herniated disk in her lower back and experienced depression-like symptoms while filming Jason Reitman’s Tully. She thought it was brought on by the processed foods she had to eat to maintain the postpartum body of her character.