(#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.”
(#2) M
Dench has played M in eight Bond films. Before Dench, M was played by Bernard Lee and then Robert Brown. Ralph Fiennes picked up where Dench left off.
When she learned that her time in the role would wrap up after Skyfall (she then made a cameo in Spectre), Dench wasn’t thrilled. “They told me gently and I laughed through my tears. Seven films is a long time. But MI6 would have given her the push by now, don't you think?”
Dench’s Bond films as M:
GoldenEye (1995)
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Die Another Day (2002)
Casino Royale (2006)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Skyfall (2012)
Spectre (2015)
(#3) Paula
Jane Lynch owes this role to Steve Carell’s wife. Comedian and actor Nancy Walls told Carell that there should be more women in the movie. So, the store manager was changed from male to female. The role wasn’t just handed to Lynch, though; she had to earn it.
While improvising with the other actors, she nailed the part. She also added a new dimension to sexual harassment in the workplace.
(#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."
(#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.
(#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.
(#7) Murph
Originally Cooper’s child Murph was a boy, but Nolan decided to make a change: "Maybe because my eldest child is a girl, I decided to change Murph into a girl. I found that came very naturally to me, writing that relationship between a father and a daughter."
(#8) Zula
- 0
Zula was a reluctant student of sorcery in the Conan comics. Of royal blood and the last of his kind, Grace Jones played a satisfying female version of the character. She held the screen with the imposing Arnold Schwarzenegger.
(#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.
(#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.
(#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.
(#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.
(#13) Hobson
Sir John Gielgud was fantastic in 1981’s Arthur - so fantastic, he won an Oscar for best supporting actor. Mirren’s Hobson in the 2011 remake was no less hilarious and deadpan. Her performance had Gielgud’s same restrained tolerance for Arthur’s antics as well as the love of a parent. Well-played on both accounts.
(#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.
(#15) Alicia Clark
Close has always had the cojones to take on any role and she was no different when it came to 1994’s The Paper. Writer Stephen Koepp said that he did adjust the character a bit, but Close played the character as close to the original as possible.
They even kept in a fistfight between her character and Michael Keaton’s. Technically, only Close intentionally punches Keaton.
(#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.
(#17) The 'Ghostbusters' Reboot Gals
The making of the new Ghostbusters with women in the lead roles caused quite a stir. Kristin Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones will not kill anyone’s childhood. They are comedy pros, and director Paul Feig knows what he’s doing.
There’s room for everyone in this world. It was awesome.
New Random Displays Display All By Ranking
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.
Our data comes from Ranker, If you want to participate in the ranking of items displayed on this page, please click here.