In a recent interview, Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett both revealed that their Oscar-nominated lead roles in Tar and Everything Everywhere All at Once were originally written for a man. Speaking in completely binary terms, it wasn't until recently that female characters started taking their equal share of leading roles across all the available genres.
In some cases, like Emily Blunt's character in Sicario and Sandra Bullock's in Gravity, the writers/directors involved were asked to change the roles in the opposite direction for a more successful movie. These movies did fine, and one could even say, were highly lauded and successful without the switch. Several character gender swaps have taken place though, that have brought on brilliant results that we could hardly see any other way today.
1 Tár in Tár
The eight-time Academy Award-nominated actress, Cate Blanchett, delivers a powerful performance as the title character Lydia Tár in Tár. This character, however, did not begin with Blanchett in mind. She reveals in a Variety interview that; "When Todd was thinking about it, 'Tár' was originally a male role."
Because the role is that of a world-class conductor, it's statistically not much of a surprise. Though according to Classic FM, the number of women on the list of top conductors is on the rise, from one out of 100 in 2013 to eight out of 100 in 2020, Woo! Gender aside, Tár is a beautifully composed role and Blanchett delivers a stellar performance that's music to the ears of cinema.
2 Evelyn in Everything Everywhere All at Once
Speaking about her leading role as Evelyn, Michelle Yeoh mentioned in the Variety interview with Cate Blanchett, that they had written Evelyn as a man as well. "I think it's the norm, because it would be easier to finance. It would be easier to understand that a guy would multiverse jump."
Well, this is hardly the case anymore! Yeoh's performance as the strong-willed mother, pragmatic dreamer, and hot-dog-fingered laundromat owner, will go down in history in this multiverse extravaganza. No one is surprised that Yeoh was nominated this year for an Academy Award, but we might be surprised if she doesn't win.
3 Dory in Finding Nemo
It's hard to imagine anyone but Dory traversing the deep blue to P.Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. Who else could we tolerate repeating it so many times we knew it better than our own home address? According to the audio commentary supplied on the Finding Nemo DVD, director Andrew Stanton had originally thought the character would be male.
Then one night, while he and his wife were watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Stanton scrapped that first thought. He was so taken with DeGeneres' voice that he asked her to play the part. She accepted, and smartly so. At the time of its release, Finding Nemo was the highest-grossing animated film of all time and is still widely beloved today.
4 Murph in Interstellar
In the sci-fi wormhole adventure meets family drama, the character of Murph is our view of her dad, Matthew McConaughey's, high-stakes Earth-saving mission. The co-writer and director Christopher Nolan originally had the role of 'Murphy' as a man but decided to change it with inspiration from his relationship with his oldest daughter.
In an interview with Dazed magazine, Jessica Chastain, who played Murph, commented that; "It's a huge literary theme in novels and in movies- where it's the father/son story... so of course that's the expected take on it. So how incredible that Chris was able to use his personal experience of having a daughter..." Since the release of Interstellar in 2014, we have started to see more father/daughter relationships at the core of movies, and with any luck, will get many more in the future.
5 Zula in Conan the Destroyer
This is a case not based on the screenplay, but based on the original comics that the Conan movies drew from. The character of Zula, played by the one-of-a-kind icon Grace Jones, is a man in the primary paper copy, but when brought to the screen, was perfectly portrayed by Jones.
If you know anything about Grace Jones, you will not be surprised that she crushed the role of the last and gleefully fearless warrior of the Darfarian tribe. Zula can do it all, from romance to heroism, and gives dating advice with the same fervor that she spiked-lance smacks her enemies with. When asked by the princess how she should attract a man, Zula replies; "Grab him! And take him!"
6 Captain Phasma in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
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The first major female villain in the Star Wars franchise was not initially written that way. In an interview with Vulture the co-writer of Star Wars: The Force Awakens Lawrence Kasdan confesses that they didn't have a script ready as hundreds of people began working on the film in various departments. They were pressed to get the script done and cast set in a series that, at the time, had few and far between in the way of female characters.
"Everything was happening simultaneously," Kasdan remarked. "When the idea came up to make Phasma female, it was instantaneous: everyone just said, 'Yes. That's great." And you know what? It was great. Gwendoline Christie nailed the role with just as much grace and power as she did in The Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, and last year's The Sandman.
7 Jodie Foster in Flightplan
Being told by an entire plane of people that you just 'imagined' your daughter and that she was never with you on the plane at all takes gaslighting to a new height. It's a tough role to take on. Admitting that he originally wanted Sean Penn for the role, Director Robert Schwentke ultimately knew the character seemed to be missing something.
In the Flightplan DVD commentary, he mentions that; "When you're dealing with a male protagonist, there's a certain iconography you can use." By changing the role to a mother, he had to figure out how to show the character without the same league of leading female thriller roles to go off of. Jodie Foster delivered the answer.
8 M in the James Bond series
It would likely be no surprise to anyone familiar with the Bond novel author Ian Fleming that he wrote the head of MI6 as a man. This character, only known to us as 'M', was first brought to the screen by Bernard Lee, who went on to play the role for a whopping 11 films. After passing, Robert Brown took up the mantle until 1995 when Judi Dench stepped into the office.
The Dame takes up the 'M' mantle with the same thought in mind that many were having at the time. She tells Bond to his face with whip-smart calculation after correctly presuming that he finds her to be a 'bean-counter' that she finds him to be a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War." Serving brilliantly in the role until 2012, her 'M' is finally given a name at her character's death, a beautiful bow to the mystery held in her title, 'Olivia Mansfield'.
9 Hildy in His Girl Friday
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The fastest gal on the screen is Rosalind Russel, coming in at 240 spoken words per minute in the screwball comedy classic His Girl Friday. Initially the role, written in the source material play The Front Page as 'Hildebrand' and not 'Hildegaard', would have gone to a man. Luck should have it though that legendary director Howard Hawks should have a dinner party reading.
In the cleverly titled Hawks on Hawks by Joseph McBride, Howard Hawks writes; "There was a girl there who was pretty good, and I said, "Read the reporter's part, and I'll read the editor's part." And in the middle of it, I said, "My Lord, it's better with a girl reading it than the way it was!" The switch found the fantastic Rosalind Russel as Hildy. While shockingly missing a nomination in any Academy Awards field, this film nevertheless rests sturdily at the top of most lists of top comedies of all time.
10 Ripley in Alien
This Alien character needs no introduction. Ripley is one of the most beloved action heroes on the screen, and certainly a groundbreaking character for women in film. According to director Ridley Scott, in an interview with The L.A. Times, the idea likely stemmed from the head of 20th Century Fox, Alan Ladd Jr. "...who said, 'Why can't Ripley be a woman?' And there was a long pause, that at that moment I never thought about it. I thought, why not, it's a fresh direction-."
Yes, this fresh direction did technically turn the character of Ripley into a 'final girl', but it also set her up for the sequel as an all-around alien-fighting aficionado in Aliens. So... worth it. Plus the sequel role saw Sigourney Weaver nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, from a genre that certainly doesn't see the most award nominations.