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(#14) Lenny
On the way to production, the character of network president Lenny changed to female. Weaver insisted that nothing change about her character, including the obsession about whether women’s breasts are real.
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(#12) Jane Bodine In 'Our Brand Is Crisis,' Played By Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock took on the role (a “female Karl Rove”) intended for the film’s producer, George Clooney, after looking around for strong roles for women and finding the search to yield few results. “About two-and-a-half years ago, I just put out the feelers saying, ‘I’m not reading anything I’m excited about. Are there any male roles out there that they don’t mind switching to female, as long as it works?’”
The writers didn't really change anything about the character besides her gender.
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(#11) Delacourt In 'Elysium,' Played By Jodie Foster
Foster had wanted to work with Neill Blomkamp since she saw District 9. As he was casting Elysium, he decided to make Defense Secretary Delacourt female. But once he made the decision to change the character’s gender, he didn’t know if Foster would do it. “I thought, ‘That would be f*cking awesome, but there’s just no way,'” he said. “But then, within, like, a day, I had a meeting with her and she said, ‘I want to play it.’ I was like, ‘Holy sh*t!’”
Foster’s Delacourt proves women can be just as elitist as men when it comes to sharing snooty orbiting space real estate.
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(#9) Kyle Pratt
The role was originally written as a father looking for his missing daughter on a plane. “We sort of took one shot with an actor, and then we had the idea that this is maybe [the wrong story] to do with a man - maybe we need to do this with a mother," director Robert Schwentke said. "It’s much more archaic; the bond between a mother and daughter is a different one than the father and the daughter. Thinking along the lines of how we can make this the most emotionally impactful movie possible, we started thinking about Jodie and, thank God, she was interested in doing it."
They did keep the original name of the male character, though.
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(#5) Karsi In 'Game Of Thrones,' Played By Birgitte Hjort Sørensen
She only appeared in one episode in Season 5, but Karsi left an impression with viewers. In “Hardhome,” Sorensen’s clan chief and Wilding elder is tough and ready to kick White Walker butt. Miguel Sapochnik, who directed the episode, said that Karsi was originally written as a man.
They wanted to show another dimension to the Wildling plight as the dark forces closed in on the north. When the warrior and mother faces off with White Walker children, the end result is powerful.
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(#1) Ellen Ripley
Weaver made Ripley one of the most iconic scifi characters to date. When Ridley Scott changed Ripley to a woman, he changed very little. Running from an acid-spitting alien pretty much takes wits, toughness, and knowing the ship corridors and hiding places by heart. Weaver added a whole new dimension to the character, which exponentially increased with each film.
This is all despite Scott's sort of sexist comment on his creating Ripley: “I just had a thought. What would you think if Ripley was a woman? She would be the last one you would think would survive - she’s beautiful.”
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About This Tool
When we think of “Women in speculative fiction, ” we often think of the roles once called “scream queens, ” actresses who appear in the second act of the next day and escape alien invaders from Earth or scuffling with aliens on an alien ship. You’ll find one or two regulars on the list below, but our intent is not to stir up familiar faces from sci-Fi genres but to honor the actors who have created some of the most distinctive and iconic roles.
The random generator tool collates 17 entries, recording 17 iconic roles that should have been played by men, but was instead played by women. As Ellen Ripley, M, Paula, Evelyn Salt, Starbuck and others, but they were very successful and impressed the audience.
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