Female actors are increasingly taking on characters that were originally intended for men. Is this a step towards gender equality or ignoring the real problem?

Last week, Christopher McQuarrie, who penned the scripts for The Usual Suspects and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, tweeted: ‘Screenwriting tip: Change that well-written man to a woman or that poorly written woman to a talking donkey.’

‘99% of women working in the film and TV industries have experienced sexism’ Read more

This stirs up nightmarish thoughts of some horrifying sex scenes, but it also speaks to an industry that still prioritises the male narrative. Yes, there appears to be an increase in substantial roles for women (Suffragette! Sicario! Anything with Jennifer Lawrence!), but they’re still the exception rather than the rule. Recent research by the University of Southern California showed that of the 100 highest grossing movies from 2007 to 2014, just 30% of roles were played by women.

This year has shown that audiences are eager for films with female leads. Cinderella, Pitch Perfect 2, Fifty Shades of Grey, Spy and Trainwreck all out-performed expectations worldwide, bringing in $1.7bn between them. They shared something important in common: the female leads were defined by their gender. These roles, as inclusive as they may have been, were all roles that could only have been played by women.

But a more fluid take on gender appears to be on the way, in force.

Over the next few months we’ll see both Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts take on roles originally intended for men (in political satire Our Brand is Crisis and thriller remake The Secret in Their Eyes, respectively) while just last week saw news that Charlize Theron would be playing a part meant for Brad Pitt in an adaptation of spy thriller The Gray Man (which is in need of a title change too).

It’s a trend that’s also hit the blockbuster arena with Tilda Swinton signing on for Marvel’s Doctor Strange in a role that’s male in the comics and reports that Universal’s Mummy reboot will boast a female monster, a significant departure from previous iterations.

This isn’t exactly a new craze. Angelina Jolie in Salt, Jane Lynch in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Grace Jones in Conan the Destroyer, Jodie Foster in Elysium, even Sigourney Weaver in Alien – all roles written for men – but it’s never occurred with quite so much frequency. Could we be entering an era of gender-blind casting?

Is Paul Feig going old-school to appease the Ghostbusters haters? Read more

“With so many of these [castings] garnering headlines, I do think we can start to expect more of them,” says Katey Rich, Hollywood editor at VanityFair.com. “As transparent as it will inevitably be, it will probably also feel refreshing.”

Similarly, the all-female Ghostbusters reboot, including Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, and the Road House remake, swapping Patrick Swayze for MMA-star-turned-actor Ronda Rousey, also suggest a fresher take on old material. “The positive press around Ghostbusters ought to be taken as a sign by studios that you can recycle as much as you want so long as you cast a woman in the role this time,” says Rich.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sicario - video review

The range of examples aren’t proof of a total sea change though. A recent female-led hit, the ferocious drug cartel thriller Sicario, saw Emily Blunt lead an almost exclusively male cast as a strong-willed FBI agent, but it’s a role that was almost taken away from her. “The screenplay was written some years ago,” Villeneuve said at this year’s Cannes film festival, “and people were afraid that the lead part was a female character, and I know several times [Taylor Sheridan] had been asked to rewrite the role.” Director Alfonso Cuarón faced, and ignored, similar pressure to change Sandra Bullock’s character to a man in Gravity.

Studio resistance to investing in a lead actor who isn’t white and male is still very much apparent. But it’s also down the lack of diversity behind the laptops. “You just know that all of the white, male screenwriters in the industry start writing scripts from their own white, male point of view, and it takes an outside force to say ‘Hey, would it be a better or more original story if we changed the gender of the lead role?’” says Rich.

Screenwriter Billy Ray is no stranger to the concept. He co-wrote 2005’s airborne thriller Flight Plan, which saw Jodie Foster take on the male lead and also changed Julia Roberts’ part in upcoming thriller The Secret in their Eyes (based on the Oscar-winning Argentinian film) to a woman.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Secret in Their Eyes trailer

“I think it’s because there are so few great roles out there for women,” he says. In Roberts’ new film, Ray claims the best man for the job, was a woman. “We were having a hard time finding the right actor, when we heard that Julia was looking for a part she could disappear into,” he said. “I asked her agent if he would support the idea of my turning the character into a woman for her. He said yes. Julia read the script when the character was still a male, and agreed to meet. Luckily for me, that went well. I made only minor changes to the character – that was important to Julia. But behaviourally, the character stayed the same.”

The lack of script modification needed for a male lead to be played by a woman also allows for fewer clichés. In the upcoming comedy Our Brand is Crisis, Sandra Bullock’s lack of partner or child is never a point, something which still seems rare for a film about a female character. Bullock herself said the character was “basically the same, other than the sex”.

The real Hollywood scandal: why Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie and other female stars get ripped off Read more

But is this trend avoiding the real problem of a lack of diversity? “Have you ever heard of an actor taking a part that was originally written for a woman?” says Ray. “I don’t think Hollywood truly cares about equality. I think Hollywood cares about commerce. And I think actresses care about the quality of the parts they can play.” As we enter a wintry blockbuster season that has Jennifer Lawrence taking charge of another Hunger Games and newcomer Daisy Ridley becoming the young lead of the next Star Wars film, it should theoretically be proved that a female heroine can indeed attract a blockbuster audience. But these are films still made by an overwhelmingly male contingent.

Rich believes the industry must look elsewhere to fix the gap. “I think the real issue is probably still behind the camera, where the gender disparity is much more shocking and invisible to moviegoers,” says Rich. The lack of female directors is so glaringly apparent that an official inquiry has been launched that aims to ensure the film industry is abiding by the US Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination.

“Changing the culture in Hollywood is like trying to turn around an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean,” says Ray. “It takes a long time.”