Putting Women in Their Place: Actresses Back in the Spotlight

When the average moviegoer is asked to name some of the greatest female characters, the first names that spring to mind are Ripley and Sarah Connor. Actresses were asked to do exciting things after the 1940s and 50s and films were littered with great female performances throughout the years that followed. Women like Ripley and Sarah were defined by their own motivations, anger, competitive edge, or beliefs. It was no longer a requirement for an actress to be in a romantic comedy for her to get a majority of the screen time.

Abruptly the clock struck midnight and those women returned to the waifish, arm-decorations that stood as the new standard for women in films. Women weren’t leading as many action films and dramas, instead they were relegated to the romantic comedies that they had tried so hard to escape from fifty years ago. Gone were the women who occupied films for reasons other than marrying a man. Gone were the women who kicked ass and took names. Gone were women who could lead films by themselves and became masters of their own journey. Ripley and Connor came and went from the pop culture world with no one to replace them.

This regression was disappointing to say in the least. Even with all of the barriers that women had going against them in the 40s and 50s, the roles were still strong. It’s hard to imagine Claudette Colbert forced to prance around in vibrating underwear like Katherine Heigl was in the silly, trite film The Ugly Truth. Very hard.

Then in a sudden burst, heroines suddenly made their comeback with recent projects like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gravity, The Hunger Games and Zero Dark Thirty. Stories that didn’t focus on a woman’s inability to land a man, all of these projects featured central female characters who defy the established order, blaze their own trails and enforce rules of their own. And the influx of leads didn’t stop at art-house films and adaptations of novels, but found a footing in all sorts of genres leading to strong showings in the Best Actress category in recent years. Bloggers started asking where all this talent had been hiding, but the truth is this: there has never been a lack of good actresses, just a short supply of good roles.

Actresses like Amy Adams have proven themselves in performances like the one she gave in American Hustle, but far more often actresses are only offered projects like Leap Year. For years, the expectation of women in films was to meet their Prince Charming and get married before the credits roll. If the men prove difficult then the women are to fix them. Even in films where women serve as leads, they are defined by the men that they are after. If that line of thinking prevailed, Brie Larson would have had to play girlfriends for years before she got a lead part. Instead she took Short Term 12 and grabbed it by the horns. Fortunately, the archaic mindset that actresses should only serve as love interests is fading as female protagonists are becoming more varied and interesting.

Take for example, one of the busiest actresses of the moment: Jessica Chastain. In a very small amount of time she has given several performances—all of them superb (Tree of Life, Take Shelter, Zero Dark Thirty)—that would be enough for most actors to call it a career on. Take Shelter seemed most impressive for how it dealt with playing one half of a household plagued with debt and uncertainty. Wives in domestic dramas are seldom presented as anything other than unfulfilled, sexually frustrated, or angry, but Chastain infused the role with warmth and common sense. Give her a good role and she runs with it. It should come as no surprise that her plate will be full for years to come.

And in case you thought that 2011 was just a fluke, 2012 and 2013 rolled out several female-centered films: The Help, The Hunger Games, Blue Jasmine, Philomena, Saving Mr. Banks, August: Osage County. These pictures were not only critical darlings, but audiences rewarded them in attendance as well. As this post is written, two of 2013’s highest-grossing films headlined by women (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Gravity) have currently raked in almost $1.6 billion. Jennifer Lawrence’s portrayal of Katniss Everdeen has a great deal to do with that box-office success. Katniss is just one of the new leading lady templates that is succeeding in theaters and what provides hope for movie lovers is that audiences are embracing this recent outgrowth of lead roles for women.

Even traditionally male-heavy fare like comic book films have seen a surge in screen time for women. Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier don’t just plug Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson in for their good looks, their characters have agency and, in Johansson’s case, was arguably in the film just as much as her co-lead. Further inspiring confidence is the race between Marvel and DC to put out a solo female superhero film that could spawn its own franchise.

Yet, it really comes down to writers sitting down and typing out roles for these talented actresses to play. Too often films with great parts for women like Juno, The Kids Are All Right, and Winter’s Bone, have been written by women. Can male screenwriters besides Joss Whedon consistently sit down and write well-rounded female characters? Another disconcerting fact is that there are so few female directors that bring a feminine perspective to the world of film. While strong, female protagonists have become more accepted in mainstream entertainment, the majority of women writers and directors still remain in the anonymity of indie filmmaking. USC’s Dr. Stacy Smith writes that as of 2013, only 4.1% of directors, 12.2% of writers and 20% of producers are women.

Statistics like that are a clear indicator change needs to come from inside of the film-churning-machine that is Hollywood. Producers need to look past the box-office-formulas that they have relied on so much in the past. Women like Kathryn Bigelow and Nicole Holofcener have proven themselves to be more than competent in the field. Reward them for it. And while you’re at it, give other female directors those opportunities as well.

Cate Blanchett reminded audiences during her Best Actress speech at this last Academy Awards ceremony: “those of us in the industry who are perhaps still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the center, are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences want to see them, and in fact, they earn money.” To back up Blanchett’s words at the Oscars, Variety’s Nikara Johns provides a study that films that give women more prominent roles indeed do better at the box-office.

“In order to pass the Bechdel test, movies must feature at least two named women having a conversation with each other about something/somebody other than a man. The data showed that the films that passed the Bechdel test actually grossed more at the box office than those that failed. The median gross return for a film that passed was $2.68 for each dollar spent, as opposed to $2.45 for a film that failed the test.” Not surprisingly, that same study showed that the effect is also present in overseas markets. “Movies that passed the Bechdel test made $1.17 per dollar of their budget overseas, while pics in which women only talk to each other about men — or don’t talk much at all — earned $1.06 per dollar.”

While Hollywood executives contemplate these words—and the $1 billion gross of Frozen—we are seeing an encouraging trend in regards to the number of big female roles. There is always more progress to be made, especially in obtaining these roles for women of color, but hope lies in future projects. The very fact that Melissa McCarthy, not considered a conventional leading lady, is headlining a summer release inspires future filmmakers to set their projects around protagonists that aren’t square-jawed men. Maleficent and The Fault in Our Stars have “surprised” box-office reporters due to their success, perhaps if they stopped treating these films as anomalies and more of a norm, more headway could be made. Still, the onus is on audiences to keep rewarding these films that buck the trend.

Otherwise, the next time you’re asked to name a great female character and you end up stumped, the fault will be your own.