The character Geena Davis has always wanted to play: “I have one dream role”
There’s a shoe for every foot, but you don’t always find it. Or someone else gets it first. Geena Davis made her name in heterogeneous roles, ranging from the screaming woman in campy horror flicks like 1986’s The Fly and 1988’s Beetlejuice to Academy Award-winning nods in The Accidental Tourist and (also 1988) and Thelma & Louise in 1991.
Her experiences in Hollywood haven’t all been milk and honey but she’s a well respected thespian who–despite her start as the lady who hits window-shattering octaves by screeching in fear–made a career out of empowered female roles. And started a charity about it too, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. The non-profit works with studios to ensure that there are robust and engaging roles for women working in film and TV. A good cause.
Geena Davis came found a home in television with the 2005-2006 show Commander in Chief where she played a fictionalized American president and won a Golden Globe for her troubles. She played a republican, but we all have our flaws. She was also a voice in the Stuart Little franchise for the better part of a decade.
But there’s one role that’s always eluded her. Speaking with Vanity Fair, Davis says: “Well, I have one dream role: I’d like to play Eleanor Roosevelt at some point, because she was tall like me, and I know I can look a lot like her.” which is a very generous assessment.
Eleanor Roosevelt has been portrayed in a fair few films and shows, perhaps most notably by Jane Alexander in 1976’s Eleanor and Franklin which won all of those tv awards and got a sequel called The Whitehouse Years which won them too. A documentary about the first lady called The Eleanor Roosevelt Story from 1965 was awarded all the finest honours as well. Her story is peppered all over pop culture in too many instances to mention.
Geena continues, “She was famous for her whole life, so I can’t age out of playing her, which is very fun. But I just want to work. Acting is my passion, and I want to do it as much as I can.” and while Geena doesn’t mention why she admires Roosevelt but it’s easy to imagine why. She was an extraordinary woman and named by a board of historians “the most likely First Lady to succeed as president”, working tirelessly across her husband’s unprecedented four terms to advance human rights.
Is there a director out there who would make an Eleanor Roosevelt biopic starring the eager and willing Geena Davis? Yeah, probably. If we can have a thousand too many seasons of The Queen, then we can have a movie or miniseries or something focusing on Roosevelt. It writes itself—her life, her accomplishments, the backdrop of World War II. Everyone’s Mom would watch that with a glass of chardonnay and aged cheese on Ritz crackers.
