Love her or hate her Elizabeth Warren has undoubtedly been making waves in recent years. We’re all for empowered women speaking out on issues that matter to them. The fact that she’s running for President is impressive. While there haven’t been many female presidential candidates, she’s hardly the first. In fact, Victoria Woodhull, the leader of the women’s suffragette movement, ran for the presidency in 1872. More recently Shirley Chisholm ran as the first black woman and first female democrat on the party nomination ballot a hundred years later in 1972. Plus we all know Hillary Clinton ran against Donald Trump in the last election. They aren’t alone. More than a dozen women have tried for the position of POTUS over the years. This campaign season is a record-breaker with six female candidates, including Warren seeking the highest office in the country. If we were going to make a film about her life to highlight this extraordinary woman, we know exactly who we’d cast. Any one of these five amazing actresses would make a superb Elizabeth Warren on the silver screen.
1. Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep is known for many things like her voice, ability to do accents and her twenty-one 21 Academy Awards nominations and 31 Golden Globe nominations. As actresses go, there are arguably none better suited to a wide range of roles. Talent alone would net her the top spot on this list, but there’s another reason we chose this living icon to play Elizabeth Warren in our theoretical biopic. Meryl as a considerable amount of experience playing real people. Among many others, she’s played Julia Child and Karen Silkwood. If we were casting tomorrow and had the budget to hire her, we’d ask for Meryl first. Then we’d cross our fingers and hope she’s not already booked in some other stellar role. Meryl Streep was outstanding as Margaret Thatcher. Hence we think she’d do real justice (no pun intended given Elizabeth Warren’s legal background) to the role.
2. Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton was once known for her comic roles, but that was before Hollywood, and the world realized quite how talented this amazing woman could be. As an actress, writer, producer, and director, we’d pick her out of any lineup for almost any role. The incomparable Diane also bears a passing resemblance to the lovely Senator Warren in our humble opinion. Of all the actresses we might cast Diane would probably look the most like Elizabeth in full makeup and costume. Both women favor a similar style of eyeglasses with smaller lenses, which is a bonus since the actress would be comfortable wearing them. We know that’s not a huge detail to some, but little things can make a huge difference in a role. It was a hard choice whether to give the top spot on this list to the iconic Meryl Streep, with her experience in playing a woman in politics. We’re glad we did. However, given the expertise and range of Diane Keaton and the fact that she looks just a little bit like Warren, she could easily have been our first choice instead.
3. Glenn Close
Glenn Close has been nominated for Oscars on many occasions, and frankly, we think she deserves more than she won. Interestingly, Glenn is good friends with another actress on this list, Meryl Streep. That’s no surprise given their shared love of singing. While Meryl once dreamed of a career in opera, Glenn spent part of her young adult years singing for Up With People. Frankly, we’d love to see the pair together in a musical, but that will have to be a different article. You may remember her best as Cruella Deville or Alex Forrester in Fatal Attraction, but Glen has terrific range and presence on screen and on the stage. With a passel of awards to back up the talent, it’s still not enough to honestly acknowledge her incredible talent. Glenn would make a beautiful and powerful Senator/Presidential Hopeful as Elizabeth Warren. She brings so much passion and charisma to her roles. It’s easy to see her giving the performance of a lifetime as a woman on a mission to change politics and the country. Moreover, Glenn’s personal history, she has a lot to work with to understand Elizabeth. Glenn was raised by a wealthy family who turned away from Connecticut socialite life to move to Africa where her father opened a clinic. That gives her plenty to draw on as the Senator who wants to end corruption in Washington. Going against the flow to follow your own truth is familiar content for this brilliant actress.
4. Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon has been in the news lately for her political opinions. Apparently, Deborah Messing doesn’t like it when someone says we should make sure everybody has healthcare and makes enough money to pay the bills. We won’t weigh in on the politics there, but it bears noting that Susan is an open Bernie Sanders supporter. We wonder if it would bother her to play one of his rivals on screen. Never the less, we think that Susan’s political passion and commitment to change makes her a perfect candidate for the role of Elizabeth Warren.
5. Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer has been a part of our movie-watching life for so long. We can hardly imagine what life will be like if she ever really retires. Though we admit Michelle is a little bit young for the role of Elizabeth Warren, we like everything about this extraordinary actress. Though Michelle or as her agent calls her “Dr. No,” is as well known for the roles she wouldn’t take as those she did. Plus she’s been incredibly busy with her return to the big screen happening at the same time as she started Henry Rose, her perfume business. We think it would be worth asking her anyway.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, we’ll be seeing a female president soon. Naturally, someone will have to do a movie about her life when it eventually happens. We think the story of Elizabeth Herring, the barely middle-class girl from Oklahoma who grew up to become Senator Elizabeth Warren would make a fantastic and inspirational biopic movie. We’d watch it at least twice whether she becomes president or not. Of course, she has to be elected as the nominee first, but it would make a great story.
Follow Us
