TEN Great female roles in films
The damsel in distress. That’s what we need women in films for.
It’s such a gross under use of female talents in the market and such a terrible way to encourage the growth of eye candies. No doubt most people want a good looking girl, if a girl ever has to grace a film, but they’re there to scream, ask questions (so the hero can explain things to the audience) and kiss the hero as the screen darkens. With job requirements like that, I wouldn’t mind quitting my day job to be an actress (if I could meet the looks criteria).
Here’s some actors who got fun, challenging or just plain cool female roles – roles that probably made these actors heave a sigh of relief in between the stacks of love-interest scripts on their table.
1) Sigourney Weaver
Signourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Alien(s) – now how many girls can really play tough chicks? And I don’t mean the perfectly made up, not even a hair out of place after a long fight scene and landing on her four-inch-high stiletto type. The grunts, the emotions and all the grime and sweat that comes with it, Weaver plays Ripley in a way modern female heroes don’t come close to. Deservingly nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance, sci-fi films now look to Alien(s) as a benchmark or sorts.
2) Linda Blair
Linda who? Okay, let’s try this again – Regan, the fourteen year old possessed girl in The Exorcist. Aahhh, now we’re talking. Bet you can still remember how scary Linda Blair looked in the film as she threw up. It was not only one of THE most memorable films of our time, but required great skill to pull off. (Then, again, I hear she got erm.. help in the throwing up department. Don’t know how it figures then…)
3) Gong Li
No doubt in Memoirs of a Geisha she wore an inch thick of white powder, and she was b%tchy yet beautiful but she stood on her own two feet and (in my opinion) outshone Zhang Zi-Yi, the lead, in many scenes.
4) Uma Thurman
Kill Bill is exceptional not because Uma Thurman played a revenge seeking mother but because for once in a single movie, there were plenty of female roles interesting enough to take on. Sure, most of them required being a b%tch in some way, but it must bore an actor to tears if she had only love-interest scripts to choose from. And for someone who can play blonde bombshells roles without blinking, Uma’s a nasty piece of work as The Bride.
5) Geena Davis
I’m referring to that other awake from amnesia and seek revenge woman – the one from ‘The Long Kiss Goodnight’. Simply because sometimes, they feel like two completely different women. Logic aside, I find Samantha the nice homemaker yet Charly is something else. Not as dramatic as ‘The Bourne Identity’ and probably didn’t gross as much but entertaining none the less.
6) Julia Roberts
Finally stepping out of her nice girl smiley roles, Julia Roberts did the smart thing and took up Erin Brokovich. For the first time, she played a mother to kids who wears thrashy clothes. (okay, she also wore thrashy clothes in Pretty Woman). Through sheer attitude, she gets taken seriously despite the short skirts and plunging necklines (and how many actors can do that?)
7) Franke Potente
In ‘Run Lola Run’ all Franke does is probably run. But her role is far better than the wall paper role most girls get. And she gets to curse a lot while trying to save her lover. Hhmm… man in distress… yet the film does this so well you never really notice that a gender reversal has taken place.
8) Helena Bonham Carter
Playing Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd means she get away with messy hair throughout the entire film. Which is a breath of fresh air from all the other love interest in films. Of course, Mrs Lovett is also a love interest with a twist. She works in the kitchen (a traditional female role in society) but has a sick sense of flavour. And really, who wouldn’t want to be in a set as brilliant as that envisioned by Tim Burton?
9) Parminder Nagra
Instead of dreaming about a new dress, Jessminder (played by Parminder) dreams of playing football in ‘Bend it like Beckham’. She talks about the challenges of being a girl with an interest in football and copes with her mother’s attempts to make her ‘marriageable’. Unlike other films, this female role requires a character more than just looking perplexed, she's required to have a personality.
10) Hilary Swank
For a short while, it became the flavour of the month to ‘uglify’ yourself in the name of being taken seriously. But before that became the ‘in’ thing, Hilary Swank took it one step further by losing all her femininity. She played a girl who embraced a male identity in ‘Boys Don’t Cry’. In a stunning performance, Swank tugged at the heart without the aid of lip gloss.
Compiling this list was hard. Mostly because there are so few female roles that actually require anything more than being a compulsory accessory to the hero. Of course, there are others such as Sarah Connor in ‘The Terminator’, Jodie Foster in 'The Panic Room' and … well… older films such as Glen Close and Geena Davis in ‘Thelma and Louise’ and Jodie Foster in ‘Silence of the Lambs’. But the fact that I haven’t watched the last two means I can’t write about their performance. (Horrors! Haven’t watched Silence of the Lambs??!!! I know!)
