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The Top 10 Best Female Leads to Ever Grace the Big Screen

By Renee Stock · November 1, 2014

Of course there are no definitive lists on this issue, but it is a good exercise to sit down and think about all the potential BEST EVERS once in a while to check in on the great ladies of film, to see who still has a firm grip on her position on the list, who has slipped off and who has come banging on the door demanding to be added. In considering a list we are forced to remember and acknowledge great performances –- to  stop and think about a scene, an expression or a whole persona that makes us point to that lady and say, her, yep, her, right there – she is the best ever.

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10. Jennifer Lawrence as Ree Dolly in Winter’s Bone (2010)

Sure it’s hard to face down serial killers, aliens and powerful corporations, but try being a teenager charged with finding your missing father in order to keep your drowning family afloat in the dark heart of the meth infested Ozarks. The challenges Ree faces are things that lurk on every corner of impoverished pockets of rural America – hunger, homelessness and dangerous men – and she faces them all down with a bravery and maturity that are shocking in their authenticity and their depth. A career-making role never felt so deserved.

 

6. Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood in Silkwood (1983)

Telling the truth when the truth jeopardizes your paycheck and when your paycheck is the thing that allows you to survive in this world is no small thing. Most people turn their backs on the truth, or tell themselves it’s not their problem, or they just ignore it altogether. But not Karen Silkwood. Karen Silkwood decides to tell the truth about corners being cut at her job, and when corners are cut at her job it’s a big deal because she just happens to work with plutonium at a nuclear plant. Karen Silkwood is an imperfect, regular working woman who decides to do something deceptively simple: tell the truth. And she does so while sporting a world class mullet. While almost any of Meryl Streep’s characters could land on a list such as this Karen Silkwood shouts the loudest.

 

5. Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson in Fargo (1996)

Marge Gunderson is a nice pregnant lady with a warm bed and a loving husband who goes out in the frozen tundra to fight crime because well, geez it’s all part of the job. McDormand introduced us to a whole new breed of cop, one that uses thoughtfulness and politeness to disarm you instead of a gun. She doesn’t force things, but instead takes her time to let the clues start adding up because she believes good work and being polite are the best weapons to use against the bad guys.

 

4. Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

The ultimate marital face-off where each side lands numerous body blows and no one comes up the winner. It’s a tightly wound script with three actors doing their best to protect themselves from a human tornado played by Elizabeth Taylor. She’s drunk, pissed off and out to push every last button she can find. It’s the finest example of why Elizabeth Taylor belongs on any list of bests.

 

3. Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Let’s face it, if you give Jodie Foster a passing glance she appears to be a small woman who could be physically overpowered pretty easily. But when the camera lens is aimed directly into her eyes (which it frequently is in this movie) you see an endless reservoir of intelligence and not fearlessless exactly, because she is scared, but more of a profound determination to confront evil at any cost – which just happens to be the only combination that makes even a simple conversation with Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter seem like a fair fight.

 

2. Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Alien (1979)

In 2014 we’re used to seeing women in movies who quite literally kick the asses of the bad guys, but in 1979 this was a pretty unusual thing in genre movies where male heroes usually won the day. Her performance and pure physicality not only opened our eyes to how smart, strong and capable a single woman could be, she also showed us with her fiercely realistic acting that horror, action and sci-fi movies could contain as much nuanced human drama as anything else out there on the big screen.

 

1. Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939)

Sure this is a predictable #1 entry, but how could it be anyone else? Whenever I hear the word Hollywood a vague image of Scarlett O’Hara comes to mind, she’s turning toward the camera with that face, those eyes. But Vivien Leigh brings more than beauty to one of the most complex females ever put on film. She embodies the pettiness, the stubbornness, the longing and the pluck in a way that many have tried and failed to copy. If aliens landed and asked what a leading lady was you’d do well to show them the final three minutes of this film.