19 Great Performances by Women Playing Love Interests
By Amy Woolsey
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in Romeo and Juliet (1968), screenshot courtesy of Paramount Pictures
With Oscar season around the corner, we take a look at a few times in cinema that women have elevated “love interest” roles with great performances.
For movie lovers, fall signals more than a change in weather: it’s also Oscar season. Superheroes are out, and historical figures are in. One thing, however, remains constant. Both action-driven blockbusters and character-driven prestige pictures tend to treat women as secondary, consigning them to shallow girlfriend, wife, and mother roles. This indicates not only disinterest in women’s lives but also disrespect for performers’ abilities. How often do you see a gifted, experienced actress occupying a role that could be played by an extra?
Yet, while we fight to expand the range of roles available to women, perhaps it’s also time we reevaluated our definition of success. Too often, we conflate quantity with quality, assuming lead roles, especially ones that involve drastic physical transformations or flashy displays of emotion, are necessarily more difficult and rewarding than supporting roles that blend into the overarching story. As a result, men’s roles and performances generally receive the lion’s share of attention.
The truth is that women have spent the last century doing stellar work with limited opportunities, and, if anything, they should be celebrated. Any actor can shine as a fully developed character; it takes real talent to stand out in a role that looks unremarkable on paper. Besides, filmmaking is a collaborative process. As Kirsten Dunst said:
"You want to feel like you’re working, with the director and the other actors involved, towards a common, creative, meaningful experience… So sure, I was the lead in my last movie and I’m not the lead in this one, it’s like, who cares? As long as you are doing something you think is good it doesn’t matter."
So, here are a few performances given by women over the years that show playing a love interest doesn’t have to be thankless (in chronological order, from the earliest to the most recent).