KICK-ASS FEMALES
by Gabriel Chong | 4 August 2010

Angelina Jolie’s Evelyn Salt won’t be the first female action hero you’ve seen, but it may be the first where the role was originally written for a male. Tom Cruise was the star the movie was written for, before he turned it down- citing similarities to his “Mission Impossible” Ethan Hunt character.

Then, an attractive US$20 mil paycheck plus some backend of the profits later (one of the highest for a female actress in Hollywood), Jolie officially took the place of Cruise in the high-octane action thriller. Even before “Salt”, Jolie had already established a name for herself as a “Wanted” actress in the female action hero department- with a resume that read “Gone in 60 Seconds”, two “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” movies, “Mr and Mrs Smith” and “Wanted”.

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said in an interview that “Salt” probably wouldn’t have been possible if not for Jolie. “I can’t think of anybody right now you could make at this scale,” he said. “You’d have to have a much less expensive movie and tried to launch something.”

Jolie’s cross-gender appeal is apparent from the box-office success of the film, whose opening weekend has blown past that of male-dominated action flicks this summer like Prince of Persia, The A-Team, The Losers and even Cruise’s own Knight and Day. For guys, Jolie has been and is still hot and sexy, while for girls, Jolie seems like a great mother, devotes her spare time to philanthropy and of course kicks ass- maybe even more so than the opposite gender.

But even so, it was still a gamble changing the role from Edwin to Evelyn. “You know, the female audience has been the most fickle audience, so they’re harder to make movies for. We constantly have evidence of that over and over again,” said Lorenzo.

Jolie describes in a recent interview with Vanity Fair that her participation actually began with a call from Sony studio chief Amy Pascal who asked if she wanted to play a Bond girl. “I said, no, I’m not comfortable with that, but I would like to play Bond. We laughed, and then, a year later, she called back and said I think we’ve found it.”

Not every actress which has dared to take up the physical demands of a female action hero has had the same success as Jolie did. Take Jennifer Garner, for instance, who kicked butt as Sydney Bristow in Alias- her leap to screen in the Marvel comic book adaptation Elektra didn’t have the electrifying effect on the box-office as some thought it would, and Garner has since gone into romantic comedies. Lorenzo cites Garner as one of the few actresses he thinks could have anchored “Salt” the way Jolie does- that is, before she did a career about-turn.

Other actresses have had better luck- though their success has largely been limited to one franchise or one standalone movie. Milla Jovovich and Kate Beckinsale are probably the best examples of this. Jovovich’s Resident Evil series has been one of the most lucrative video-game adaptations to date, with the fourth instalment- Resident Evil: Afterlife- due out in 3D later this September.

Yet outside of Resident Evil’s Alice, Jovovich’s attempt to replicate her tough-as-nails kick-ass female character has not been successful. Case in point- writer/director Kurt Wimmer’s action sci-fi movie Ultraviolet (2006) which earned a dismal US$18 mil at the US box office, not even enough to recoup its relatively cheap US$30 mil budget.

Ditto for Kate Beckinsale, whose success at selling the female heroine has been limited to the Underworld franchise. After a hiatus in the last Underworld movie, Beckinsale is set to return to the series as the sexy vampire Selene in its fourth instalment due 2011. Like Jovovich, Beckinsale’s attempt at a different female action hero failed when her Antarctica-based thriller Whiteout (2009) tanked with just US$12 mil in worldwide box-office sales.

If history is any guide, then the fault doesn’t always lie with the star. Another challenge is finding the right role that audiences will gleefully embrace. Sigourney Weaver had a giant breakthrough with Ellen Ripley in Alien (1989) and its sequel Aliens (1986)- for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Till today, Ripley is still regarded as the best example of a strong, self-reliant take-charge female hero onscreen, with Bill Goodykoontz, film critic for the Arizona Republic and film critic of the Gannett chain proclaiming it as the “gold standard for this type of action hero”.

Linda Hamilton too had a similar history-defining moment with Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) as Sarah Connor. Hamilton reportedly built herself up physically for the role, and while the Governator may have had the bigger muscles onscreen, it was Hamilton who had the more powerful human presence. Like Ripley, Sarah Connor has joined the ranks of some of the most memorable female action heroes.

Yet despite having created two such icons, both Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton have yet been able to find the same success they enjoyed with Ripley and Sarah Connor respectively. Compare that with the number of iconic roles that male actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis have created over the years- and you’d understand why the playing field in action movies for females isn’t exactly level.

The good news and the bad news is- it’s about to get more uneven. These days, even the guys don’t have it easy. Indeed, it’s hard to find an action star the likes of Schwarzenegger, Stallone or Willis today- the closest star one can probably think of is Jason Statham and even Jason has had varying success over the years. Lorenzo is keenly aware of this- he said that it’s not easy to be an action star today, whether male or female.

But that also means audiences are looking for something different from before- no matter male or female. As director Phillip Noyce explains: “I felt really strongly on this project that it’s not a female character; I felt it was a hero. That it was not gender-driven, but methodology-driven.”

That methodology isn’t something new- as the likes of Ripley, Sarah Connor, Alice, Selene and now Salt has demonstrated, the key lies in making sure that the audience feels affiliated with the character.

Said Lorenzo: “You know, I've been involved in 150 plus movies in different forms and ways, and [in] every single one of those, we did one thing the same, which was make sure you like that lead character, make sure you root for them.” And he made sure the audience rooted for Salt, whether it was Edwin or Evelyn. Of course, having Angelina Jolie play Salt made the deal all the sweeter.

Salt opens in theatres 5 August 2010

Salt (2010)


Wanted (2008)


Elektra (2005)


Underworld Evolution (2005)


Whiteout (2009)


Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)


Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)


Aliens (1986)


Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)