San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Defining starring roles
What are we counting as a “starring role”? Brie Larson is the star of “Captain Marvel.” Julianne Moore is the star of “Gloria Bell.” In each case, the woman is the lead character. She is the movie’s focus. No ambiguity. But for our purposes, we’re also counting movies in which women star alongside a man, so long as the female character is of at least equal importance. This requires some judgment calls, but in practice, it’s usually pretty obvious. Lady Gaga in “A Star Is Born” is at least as important as Bradley Cooper in the same movie. Julia Roberts is at least as important as Lucas Hedges in “Ben Is Back,” even though he plays Ben.
As for romantic comedies, if the movie is about a man and woman who get together, that counts as a starring role for a woman. On the other hand, if the romantic comedy is all about the guy and his romantic tribulations, and he just happens to meet the woman of his dreams a third of the way into the movie, that doesn’t count. Again, these are judgment calls, but the control here is that the same person is doing the judging — that is, me — and in the vast majority of cases, I’ve actually seen the movie.
Finally, here’s something else that doesn’t count. If the movie is about a male detective, and he has a wife, because the movie needs him to have a sounding board; or he has a girlfriend, because the studio needs a woman to take off her shirt, given the fact that they have an R rating already — that won’t do it. Those are not starring roles.