Cynthia Erivo in Wicked
Cynthia was thrilled to spotlight Elphaba's story of marginalization and resilience. As she told Variety in November 2024, "I hope it's a bit of a love letter to everyone who feels different, who feels out of place, to all of the Black women who have walked into rooms and felt like they haven't been welcomed."
She proudly wore the role, even paying homage to her Black identity by styling the witch's historically wavy hair in micro braids.
"I asked if we could reimagine that hair as micro braids because I knew you'd still have the movement," Cynthia told the outlet the following month, "and you could still have the length, but there was a texture that was slightly different to what you would normally see on stage, and it was a direct connection between me as a Black woman and Elphaba as a green lady."
When it came to the storyline, the Tony winner felt it was essential to explore the complex layers of the Black experience.
"I think I've had some time to reckon with the skin I'm in and to be comfortable walking into a room and being the only one," she explained to Refinery29 at the time, "people looking at me and not necessarily seeing beauty, but having to find that for myself and accept all of the things I am, find my own beauty and be able to call myself beautiful, regardless of what other people think."
"What I wanted for Elphaba was that when she walks into a room, the skin she's in is not new to her," she continued. "It's something that she's lived with her whole entire life, and so there has to be confidence, otherwise she would never leave the house. I felt like, why would she not be confident in what she looks like if it's what she knows every single day?"
Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid
Halle, who was part of Disney's world as Princess Ariel in 2023's live-action The Little Mermaid, felt a deep connection to the mermaid's story.
"Her sense of longing, her searching for herself, was something that I could resonate with," she told Variety in August 2022. "She knew where she wanted to go, and she wasn't going to let anybody stop her."
Amid the onslaught of criticism, Halle emphasized the importance of diverse representation, especially in children's media.
"What that would have done for me, how that would have changed my confidence, my belief in myself, everything," she added. "Things that seem so small to everyone else, it's so big to us."
She took the role very seriously, going to the gym at 5 a.m. every day and spending hours practicing stunts.
"I'm trying to hold myself up with my core while singing and while acting and trying to look like I'm not shaking because it's like a workout I'm doing, like a plank," she told USA Today in May 2023. "So it was all of the things, trying to weave them together and look like, 'This is natural, this is a normal day, I swim in the ocean every day.'"
Zendaya in Spider-Man
Although Zendaya swung into our hearts as Michelle Jones (MJ) in 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming with Tom Holland as the masked superhero, critics weren't thrilled with a biracial love interest.
In previous iterations of the Marvel comic book, Spider-Man's love interests have always been white. Kirsten Dunst starred as Mary Jane opposite Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi's trilogy and Emma Stone played Gwen Stacy in Andrew Garfield's The Amazing Spider-Man.
"People are going to react over anything," Zendaya said of the backlash to The Hollywood Reporter in November 2016. However, in a world of make-believe, nothing about the character's identity "is fact," she noted. "It's like, you guys are just making s--t up at this point and then reacting to it."
Despite the critiques, the Challengers actress, who got engaged to Tom in January 2025, knows that her casting mirrors reality.
"Of course, there's going to be outrage over that because, for some reason, some people just aren't ready," she continued. "I'm like, 'I don't know what America you live in, but from what I see when I walk outside my streets of New York right now, I see lots of diversity and I see the real world and it's beautiful, and that's what should be reflected and that's what is reflected so you're just going to have to get over it.'"
Brandy in Cinderella
In 1997's Cinderella, Brandy's diamond tiara sat perfectly on her braids and her baby blue dress fit like a glove. But beyond her royally adorable ensemble, the "I Do It For You" singer ushered in representation with the most unexpected princess.
"I knew that this was so great for the world to see, especially Black people," she reflected on Good Morning America in August 2022. "She represented a culture that is beautiful, and I just so appreciated that because that was so much a part of what I wanted to bring to Cinderella."
"That movie changed the way Black little girls believed in themselves," she said. "I hear to this day, 'I believe I can be a princess now because of you.'"
Although Brandy's role in the colorblind casted movie was revolutionary, she admitted that she didn't realize the weight of it while filming.
"I knew that it was special, but I didn't really know how special," she shared with Vulture in February 2021. "When I was able to see it all come together and see the finished product of it, I was like, 'Wow, this is different.' This is something I had never seen. It inspired me. It was as if I wasn't even watching me as Cinderella."
Tessa Thompson in Thor: Ragnarok
The Marvel star always knew she was more than worthy when portraying Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Love and Thunder and The Marvels despite criticism that she didn't look like the comic book character. Nonetheless, Tessa proved she could be a warrior when she put on her armor.
"We have so many conversations, particularly now, about representation in film," she explained to Entertainment Weekly in May 2017. "The unfortunate thing about a lot of these fantasy movies is when they're based on source material, a lot of these comics were written in a time when that wasn't a part of the conversation as far as having representation. Not just having characters that reflect the world we live in but how we represent the characters."
In fact, she pointed out that in the comics, Valkyrie's outfit is basically "a bathing suit."
"We had a conversation of, what is a strong look?" she added. "She should probably be in pants. That probably makes more sense for the kind of work she's doing. And we had conversations about her sort of feeling like a tomboy and having a certain masculinity about her while still being very much a woman."
Amandla Stenberg in The Hunger Games
Although Rue was described as having dark skin in the Hunger Games novels, fans were surprised that Amandla played the District 11 tribute in the 2012 film. In fact, she recalled fans believing her character's death was "less sad" because of her race.
"While it was hurtful when I was 12, it wasn't shocking," she told BuzzFeed News in 2018. "The irony of the whole situation was that Rue was one of the only characters I could find in the content I loved that was literally written as Black."
The experience was ultimately a lesson for Amandla. Since then, she's had the chance to star in movies like Bodies Bodies Bodies, The Hate U Give and Everything, Everything.
"We're getting really good Black roles for Black women that are leading roles, and projects where Black women are at the helm and Black people are at the helm," she explained to the outlet. "I think that's really exhilarating, and I feel lucky to come of age at a time when that's really happening.