Who is the greatest FEMALE movie star of 1980 to the present

[Good Ole Stannis's BBQ]

Streep is the female DDL; peerless actor but not a "movie star". IMO.

. I thought so too but, she sure is getting a lot more votes than I expected.

 

[Slippage]

Streep is actually a movie star, unlike DDL.

DDL makes ONLY award season movies, every couple of years. Streep makes everything. Award season movies AND mass market films for general audiences. Things like It's Complicated, Mama Mia, The Devil Wears Prada, Hope Springs make money at the multiplex even without the threat of awards (though Streep got a nomination for Prada, it was not meant to be one of her more prestige efforts).

 

[Burning Hammer]

they all suck, women are inferior actors that's why men played their roles historically

 

[Guestx]

they all suck, women are inferior actors that's why men played their roles historically

 

[luckyshot]

Why aren't Gianna Michaels and Alexis Texas on the list?

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Going to have to go with Julia Roberts

 

[Burning Hammer]

Why aren't Gianna Michaels and Alexis Texas on the list?

Something we agree upon my man

 

[Burning Hammer]

name a female who is better at acting than Tom Hardy

I'll wait.

 

[Guestx]

name a female who is better at acting than Tom Hardy

I'll wait.

I don't know about better, but I think that the best female actors are just as capable as the best male actors.

 

[moreorless87]

Nicole Kidman.

She has Streep's range as an actress, while being an iconic star. Nowhere as many Oscar nominations/wins, but actually more respected than Streep in arthouse and European Cinema (they gave her the 70th Anniversary Prize this year at the Cannes Film Festival, an honor usually reserved for directors).

Longevity. She's a generation younger than Streep, but has been a star for 30 years (1989 since Dead Calm), and is arguably having the best year of her career, winning the Best Actress Emmy for Big Little Lies and having critically acclaimed performances in The Beguiled, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer and Top Of The Lake: China Girl. She was arguably the biggest female movie star in the world for a couple of years in the 2000's, and has never been off the A-list.

Also a respected stage actress.

Kidman is a strange case really in that her bigger Hollywood films have tended to be rather inconstant(although she's generally good in them) yet she's consistently been in good smaller scale productions for over 25 years and has not fallen back into the Streep kind of "elder statewomen" roles but gone with more challenging parts. That makes it easy to see why she's more respected in mainland Europe than the US.

Again on the acting side I would go with Juliette Binoche, big star in France since the mid 80's, pretty well known in the US, probably has more excellent performances in strong films over that period than anyone else I can think of not falling back to easy roles very often.

 

[MusterX]

Charlize seriously under rated in this thread. I think it comes down to Roberts, Bullock, Weaver, and Kidman.

P.S. Streep looks like a foreign life form.

 

[Kiyashin]

First vote for Scarlett here! Following reasons.

1. Sheer volume. Pumps out a ton of movies mostly big budget as well.
2. Pretty good draw. Ghost in the Shell was gonna tank no matter what.
3. Did some indie type and dramatic stuff. Didn't require a lot of range but can act like a real person if that makes sense.
4. Old enough where age could've slowed her choice of roles but hasn't as it does with a lot of actresses. Time is not kind to Hollywood females.
5. Has a franchise character under her belt.
6. Stunningly gorgeous.
7. Can readily name a lot of non-Marvel movies she's been in, even if crappy. Try it with some of the others like Bullock, Kidman, or even Julia Roberts. I'm lucky to name three each.
8. This is a poll for movie star.

 

[liljoe]

Who do ya think? You jackass!!!

 

[ultimateriley-o]

I'll admit in choosing Weaver I made the mistake of voting for who I feel is the best actress, not the biggest movie star.

Greatest female movie star since the 80s is definitely Angelina Jolie, followed by Julia Roberts.

 

[Guestx]

I'll admit in choosing Weaver I made the mistake of voting for who I feel is the best actress, not the biggest movie star.

Greatest female movie star since the 80s is definitely Angelina Jolie, followed by Julia Roberts.

Weaver is definitely a great actress.

I've talked a lot about my love for The Village before. Her presence and performance definitely helps to make that movie better.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

How is Sigourney Weaver winning this? She's never been a huge star. I like her, but outside of the Alien movies and Ghostbusters I don't even know what she's done.

 

[Swiftie]

I voted for Jodie Foster because I don't want this guy to hunt me down some day.

 

[Plissken]

Sigourney, class actress and human being, always makes a film better, always does an amazing job, never oversells herself either like Streep (Streep is excellent, but I feel milks roles sometimes like Daniel Day Lewis does).
Foster and Jamie Lee are awesome as well. Also a fan of Blanchett and Pfeiffer. The amazing Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tilda Swinton deserve nominations as well, both are great actresses that can do any role.

 

[HUNTERMANIA]

Mmm.. wanted to go with Natalie Portman, obv, but I picked Charlize Theron for Mad Max: Fury Road type shit. She's epic as fuck.


Maybe I should have gone with Portman. I just feel like 'movie star' implies action movies and Fury Road was way bigger than Black Swan, and it's my 2nd favorite movie of the 2010's with the 2nd greatest scene/sequence (when she gets stabbed holding onto Max). Women have the two most empowering scenes in all of film, IMO. When Nina Sayers turns into the Black Swan and when Furiosa saves Max and finishes the chase and they get away. Those two sequences are fucking badass. Theron has other great moments in that film too.


Should have picked Portman. I just love Theron in Fury Road and that movie screamed what I think of when I think of 'movie star'. I also confused a couple of her roles with Uma Therman, who is conspicuously missing from that list.

 

[splendica]

Well I suppose if we're going to do the greatest male movie star, then it only makes sense to also tackle the greatest female movie star.

The premise is the same: We're not talking the greatest ACTOR here, but the greatest MOVIE STAR. So consider factors beyond acting talent, like box office success, longevity, the quantity of great films they can lay claim to, etc.

Something tells me this one might be distinctly harder than its male counterpart.

That last sentence for sure.

I voted Natalie Portman because when it came down to it, I like her of the top contenders the best. Those top contenders to me, would be: Cate Blanchet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Merryl Streep and Angelina Jolie.