Steven Soderbergh has earned a reputation over the years for featuring strong, memorable female characters. While his new film The Laundromat revolved around powerful female leads played by Meryl Streep, often regarded the greatest actress of all time.
Aside from a great performance by a terrific actor, several factors go into a strong character. In Soderbergh's case, he's explored complex, multifaceted characters who work both sides of the law, including assassins, rebel guerillas, high-class escorts, Interpol and FBI agents, political activists, and many more.
Ann Bishop Mullany - Sex, Lies, And Videotape
The deeply unhappy and sexually repressed Ann Bishop Mulaney (Andie McDowell) in Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape ultimately summons the strength to get out of a toxic marriage by confronting her true feelings and divorcing her adulterous husband John (Peter Gallagher).
When John's impotent college friend Graham (James Spader) arrives in town, he is revealed to become aroused by videotaping interviews of women expressing their sexual encounters. After Ann learns Peter is sleeping with her sister, she opens up to Graham about her repressed sexual feelings and has a major awakening. She leaves Peter, overcomes her aversion to physical touch, and grows as a person.
Isabel Lahiri - Ocean's Twelve
While Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts) and Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin) from the Ocean's franchise are worth a mention, it's Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who outmuscles them both. As the intrepid Europol agent who plays both sides of the law like a fiddle, Isabel is the only woman in the franchise wily enough to successfully bring down Danny's (George Clooney) band of thieves.
Lahiri draws her superior strengths as a detective and keen knowledge of large-scale heists from her father, renowned master thief Gaspar LeMarc (Albert Finney), which allows her to catch Danny and ultimately coerce him for a piece of the action.
Ellen Martin - The Laundromat
Meryl Streep gives an underrated, campy, and deeply duplicitous dual turn in Soderbergh's Laundromat, a breezy comedy caper based on the real-life Panama Papers scandal. The character goes undercover to expose a massive white-collar crime, completely tricking the characters and the audience in the process.
After her husband dies in a boat accident, Ellen Martin is denied her insurance compensation due to the policy being sold to a fraudulent shell company in Panama. Finding the strength to overcome her grief, Ellen somehow infiltrates the company as a disguised Panamanian office assistant named Elena, where she works to foil the criminal plot and bring the fraudsters to justice.
Chelsea/Christine - The Girlfriend Experience
As a character who knows the worth of her body and uses it as a form of self-empowerment to subjugate men's sexual desires, Chelsea aka Christine (Sasha Grey) is a strong, independent businesswoman creating her own success in The Girlfriend Experience.
While sex work is often demonized and stigmatized, Soderbergh treats Christine as a strong-willed enterprising young woman without ing moral judgment. As Chelsea caters to affluent clientele as an upscale escort, she is emotionally steeled enough to offer the utmost intimacy and completely dominates most of her exchanges.
Helena Ayala - Traffic
Soderbergh won an Oscar for Best Director for his work on Traffic, a multi-narrative examination of the United States failed war on drugs. Here, Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Helena Ayala, the ultra-powerful wife of a major cocaine czar.
When Helena's husband is arrested on drug trafficking charges, she finds the steely resolve to do whatever is necessary to keep her family and lavish lifestyle intact. As such, she arranges a professional hit on the chief witness and continues to play hardball with her husband's cartel bosses. Stronger yet, she does all of this while she is six months pregnant.
Dr. Ally Hextall - Contagion
Considering the prescience of discovers the origin of the Contagion virus and creates the vaccine for it in the film.
Aside from her brilliant medical breakthrough, Hextall demonstrates even more strength by taking the vaccine herself without it being tested first and then visiting her infected father shortly after. The bold and brazen move ends up saving Earth's population.
Karen Sisco - Out Of Sight
The badass, butt-kicking U.S. Marshall Karen Cisco (Jennifer Lopez) in Out of Sight easily ranks among Soderbergh's most formidable film characters. Fiercely independent, self-reliant, and cool as can be under fire, Karen triumphs over professional criminals and lawmen alike.
After being held hostage by escaped prisoner Jack Foley (George Clooney), the two spark a scintillating romance while working on both sides of the law. Using brain and brawn, Karen manages to navigate her romance with Jack while bringing down his violent criminal cohorts. Smart, sexy, and in control at all times, Karen can disarm with a gun as aptly as she can with a kiss.
Aleida March - Che
Catalina Sandino Moreno gives a superb performance as Aleida March, the wife of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevera (Benicio Del Toro) in the sweeping two-part biopic Che. As a real-life woman willing to fight for her country and die for their political cause, the strength of her martyrdom is matched by her willingness as an active soldier.
March served in the military among men in the battle for Las Villas in 1958, a mission ordered by Fidel Castro, and surviving a bloody skirmish before marrying Che and sharing four children with him. March's courage alone makes her stronger than most.
Mallory Kane - Haywire
Physically speaking, Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is the toughest Soderbergh character to date. The ruthless, ice-cold Black Ops soldier turns into a vengeful John Wick.
Carano channels her brute strength, agility, and expert combat skills as a professional mixed martial arts fighter to become a one-woman wrecking crew as several shady operatives try to hunt her down and end her life. Carano performs all of her own stunts in the film, lending veracity to the part most actresses could never achieve.
Erin Brockovich - Erin Brockovich
Erin Brockovich is Soderbergh's strongest female character to date for myriad reasons. First, the heroic character is based on a real-life person. Second, Julia Roberts' towering turn earned an Oscar for Best Actress in Leading Role.
In an improbable David vs. Goliath tale, Erin is an unemployed single mother who overcomes all odds to become a revered folk hero after exposing a major conspiracy involving polluted water in California. As a novice legal aide, Erin nearly brings down the corrupt and powerful company all by herself on a crusade of important activism. Erin is sassy, assertive, and will not be denied success.
