Exploring dark complexity, spouting snappy one liners, or cruel and calculating -- actors often say that villains are the most fun to play. So in this week's Feminist Film Question, we asked you to tell us who's your favorite female movie villain. With characters ranging from action and period drama to comedy and animation, here's what you said!
Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) in Batman Returns
Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) in Kill Bill
Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts 1 & 2
Lady Kaede (Mieko Harada) in Ran
Mrs. Iselin (Angela Lansbury) in The Manchurian Candidate
Ursula (Pat Carroll) in The Little Mermaid
Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil (Glenn Close) in Dangerous
Liaisons
Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) in X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand
Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) in Mommie Dearest
Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) in Misery
Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) in Sleeping Beauty
Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in Chicago
Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) in The Devil Wears Prada
Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Lady Tremaine (Eleanor Audley), Cinderella's Stepmother in Cinderella
Mitsuko Souma (Kou Shibasaki, Suzuka Tonegawa) in Battle Royale
Pris (Daryl Hannah) in Blade Runner
Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin) in Romeo is Bleeding
Ester (Isabelle Fuhrman) in Orphan
Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty) and Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk)in Heathers
Lian Nichang (Brigitte Lin) in The Bride with White Hair
Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin) in Romeo is Bleeding
Ester (Isabelle Fuhrman) in Orphan
Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty) and Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk)in Heathers
Lian Nichang (Brigitte Lin) in The Bride with White Hair
Who are YOUR favorite female villains??
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4 comments:
Ester is the reason i am a Isabelle Furhman fan. Seriously, she is amazing in that film
I will always love Ursula from the little mermaid, and the villain of Death on the Nile (no names for spoilers). Delores Umbrige, for me, Is one of my ultimate female villains. She has the rare quality of having her own agenda and agency, even if it is just wielding as much power as she can get her hands on. You get the sense that she only works with, not for the male villains, she just works within the system to do whatever the hell she wants anyway.
Both the ladies of Damages!!
I thought Angelica Huston as the Baroness Rhodmila de Ghent in Ever After was fabulous. She was haughty, selfish, cruel and vindictive and yet she still had me warming to her at some points. In the scene where she and Danielle talk about the dead husband/father and she reminisces about her own mother's harshness, I loved the way she couldn't let herself say one purely kind thing. When she tells Danielle that she reminds her of her father, and Danielle is touched, she undercuts it by saying Danielle has such masculine features...
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