Hollywood falls for strong women this summer
When World War Z director Marc Forster was hunting for his
zombie-fighting leading lady, he bypassed any actress who was more
famous for her assets than her acting chops.
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Rinko Kikuchi in Pacific Rim |
Instead, the role of Brad Pitt's wife, Karin, went to Mireille Enos,
the indomitable Emmy-nominated star of AMC's bleak series The Killing .
"She's very real. She's tough. She has all these different layers,"
Forster says of Enos, who plays an unyielding, tenacious mother in Z,
opening wide this weekend.
"She read for me, and Brad really liked her. He thought she was great
in the role. I always just try to cast people I believe in, that I
believe in as the characters. That's all I'm trying to do.''
He's not alone, by a long shot.
This summer, theaters are glutted with the usual big-ticket bombastic
blockbusters.
What's different: The women in them are neither damsels nor
two-dimensional caricatures known more for their curves than their
craft.
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Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games |
Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts in Iron Man 3 and Amy Adams' Lois Lane
in Man of Steel got things going. And soon we'll have Maggie Gyllenhaal
holding down a collapsing government in White House Down (June 28);
Rinko Kikuchi battling fearsome monsters in Pacific Rim (July 12); and
Mary-Louise Parker as a cop in R.I.P.D. (July 19) and wife of an
assassin in Red 2 (July 19).
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Maggie Gyllenhaal in White House Down |
The trend stems from Christopher Nolan, director of the lauded Batman
trilogy (2005-2012), who cast Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway and
Gyllenhaal in his films.
"It proved beyond any doubt that a summer film can be commercial
without sacrificing artistic ambition, which means, in part, casting at
least a few actors for reasons other than just looks and bankability,''
says Hollywood Reporter film analyst Scott Feinberg.
"Just last year, two Oscar winners and one Oscar nominee who would
soon become an Oscar winner, brought respectability to three films that
proved to be among the summer's biggest hits: Marion Cotillard (The Dark
Knight Rises), Charlize Theron (Snow White and the Huntsman) and
Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games),'' says Feinberg. "The directors of
those films could have cast anyone in those parts, but they aimed high
and were rewarded for it.''
Certainly, the actresses are appreciative of the sea change.
"I seem to be beating the odds. My role in The Killing, she's the
lead and not always very likable and three-dimensional," says Enos. "And
(World War Z's) Karin, in the wrong director's hands, she could be more
of a sidekick.
"But that wasn't what Brad or Marc wanted. They wanted her to be a
strong presence. Brad would say on set, 'I think Mama Bear should do
this.' That's how he referred to her. He kept lifting her role up," she
says.
The same goes for Gyllenhaal, who plays a Secret Service agent in
White House Down. "The thing about my character is that she's never,
ever the victim. She's not the woman tied to the railroad tracks. That
person is actually Jamie Foxx. It's really unusual in that way.''
US Today.com
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