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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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(#16) Jennifer Goines In The '12 Monkeys' Series, Played By Emily Hampshire
The Brad Pitt character in the 1995 film became female for the TV series, because producers didn't want to put that kind of pressure on an actor. Jeffrey became Jennifer, but the interpretation is Hampshire’s. She said about her performance: "It's the same character, but I'm not doing an impression of his performance - it's totally new.”
They did give her character a replica of Pitt’s pullover - Comic-Con fans dug it.
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(#6) Starbuck
When Ronald D. Moore resurrected Battlestar Galactica, he wanted to avoid any comparison of Starbuck to Han Solo. "Making Starbuck a woman was a way of avoiding what I felt would be 'rogue pilot with a heart of gold' cliche,” Moore said. He also wanted to update Kara Thrace and bring her into the modern world, explaining, “the whole notion of women in the military is a relatively new idea.”
Starbuck was still a highly sexual, hard-drinking fighter pilot with blond hair.
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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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(#4) Evelyn Salt
Edwin Salt became Evelyn Salt, though the role was created for Tom Cruise. Cruise passed and Jolie became the CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy. Once Jolie got the part, she had to fight to keep the character from turning into a stereotype.
Director Phillip Noyce caused a stink when he said he didn’t want the male characters to be “castrated” by a female hero. Jolie said: “When they write something on purpose for a woman, it's always about being a woman - using your femininity, all these kind of female obvious things. So we said let's just keep all the things about it that are tough, and it's about being what she is, it's about the journey. And if anything, we have to make it darker and we have to make it meaner than the boys."
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(#10) Major Gwen Anderson
Fans of the book will say that it’s not perfectly clear if the character was meant to be male. Regardless, director Gavin Hood landed the wonderful Viola Davis for the role.
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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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