Fierce females! Whether a super power, inner strength or emotional muscles, women have been crushing roles on the big screen for decades. Over the years, fans have fallen for the talents of those including Taraji P. Henson in Hidden Figures, Emily Blunt in a Quiet Place and many more.
Blunt starred as Evelyn Abbott in the 2018 drama/thriller in which her character, a pregnant mom of two, must help her family survive in a world where they need to avoid making noise due to mysterious creatures who hunt by sound.
“This was so personal to me, and I think it was a very personal character for me, and a sort of intimate experience doing this film because it was so close to home, understanding this woman and what she’s going through, and the desire she has to just, amidst this brutal world, want to inject into her children’s lives some kind of warmth and ability to thrive,” Blunt told Screen Crush of the role. “And, I’m someone who’s probably worried, unnecessarily, all the time about my children. So this character’s experience would be the depth of hell for me. But I understood her plight and understood everything about her, so it was an intimate thing, playing this part.”
The Mary Poppins actress added of filming the intense scenes: “By the end of that week, I was like, I need to check myself into an institution. [Laughs] Like a spa or rehab, I mean, something. It was crazy.”
Henson, meanwhile, stole the show as the powerful Katherine Johnson in the 2017 drama/history film about the women — and the brains — behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit in the 1960s.
“This movie I had to do, I just felt like it was my duty,” the Empire star told TheWrap in December 2016. “We always celebrate the astronauts, but we don’t celebrate the mathematicians behind it. But I didn’t know that these women existed and I was like, ‘Why are we just learning about them?’ And I couldn’t wait to meet Katherine Johnson, she’s still very much alive. She’s 98 now.”
Scroll down to see more of Hollywood’s most talented actresses in their roles that broke barriers.
