Connie Nielsen Says Female Action Stars Are No Longer “Met With Disbelief”
Connie Nielsen is speaking out about how much has changed for women in action movies. While doing press for her new film Nobody 2, the actress reflected on both the history of the genre and the place women now have in it.
She explained that she sees the roots of action films as being tied to male fantasies. “I think action movies started out really as this way of creating this superhuman, like this ‘super man.’ It was very unconscious in the beginning about the fact that it was addressing male insecurity, by inventing this super ego that can do everything. Now I think there’s this awareness about where it comes from, and that awareness is interesting, it’s interesting for women to be part of it too.”
Nielsen believes things are different today. “A female action star [is no longer] met with disbelief… no matter how successful the movies were, women could not be taken seriously in them, and that’s no longer the case.”
Connie Nielsen reflects on the depiction of female action stars in Hollywood
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) August 17, 2025
“A female action star [is no longer] met with disbelief… no matter how successful the movies were, women could not be taken seriously in them, and that’s no longer the case.” pic.twitter.com/DCmYq9lIJE
For decades, actresses like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil, and Kate Beckinsale in Underworld showed audiences that women could carry big action roles. Still, as Nielsen points out, there was always doubt from the industry. Now, she says, audiences and studios alike see things differently.
Nielsen’s own career proves her point. She became widely known for playing Lucilla in Gladiator in 2000, a part she returned to in this year’s Gladiator II. She also brought Queen Hippolyta to life in the DC superhero films. Her filmography stretches from early projects like Soldier (1998) and Mission to Mars (2000) to thrillers like One Hour Photo (2002), The Hunted (2003), The Ice Harvest (2005), and more recent work like 3 Days to Kill (2014), Inheritance (2020), and Nobody (2021).
Her latest project, Nobody 2, sees Bob Odenkirk return as Hutch Mansell. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the movie holds a 78 percent approval rating from 126 critics. The site sums it up by saying, “While frumpy action-hero Hutch Mansell tries to enjoy a nice vacation, Bob Odenkirk works overtime to make Nobody 2 a diverting sequel that measures up admirably to the original.”
Metacritic shows a less favorable picture, giving it a 59 out of 100 from 30 reviews, which falls into the mixed category.
Still, Nielsen feels the fact that these kinds of movies continue to work proves her argument. Female stars are no longer outsiders in the action world, and audiences aren’t asking whether they belong. They do.
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