Thanks to the streaming world, romance movies are coming back. Some of those movies could be better, but the genre being back might make new directors, writers, and actors want to tell new stories that show them falling in love. If that happens, here are 10 actresses who should appear in those films.
10 Emma Stone
Emma Stone started getting noticed in movies where romance was a part of the film, be it Superbad, or The Amazing Spider-Man films (where the love story was better than the action). It was Easy A, another movie with a romantic subplot that made her a great film lead, and from there, her films with Ryan Gosling proved she could be the next rom-com queen.
Since then, Stone has been trying other genres and types of movies to flex her acting muscles, and that’s great (who would’ve thought Cruella de Vil could be likable, and Stone made it happen), but it would be great to see her come back to the genre (and if it’s with Gosling even better). Two of her next films are with Yorgos Lanthimos, and even though the Greek director’s stories always have surprising twists and turns, we hope there’s some romance in there, so Stone can prove she’s still got it.
9 Kathryn Hahn
Kathryn Hahn makes any movie she appears in better, and she can play any genre and type of character. Be it crazy (Step Brothers), conniving (Glass Onion), or villain (WandaVision). When she’s been given the chance (Afternoon Delight), Hahn has proven she can lead any movie, showing vulnerability, love, angst, and all other emotions in the human psyche. For all those reasons, we believe Hahn would be perfect as the protagonist in romance movies.
She’s been the best friend in enough of them, to know the beats, and make something different, and unique. Her talents as an improviser would make the movie even better, so she could maybe work with her colleagues Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen, so they can help her find the perfect romantic vehicle to show how Hahn can be the perfect romance lead.
8 Rebecca Ferguson
Rebecca Ferguson’s roles are usually either scary or action-filled, and even though they’re great, it would be fun to see her expand and try being a romantic lead. She’s great at showing how tough her characters can be, but it would be fun to see her lose her most icy side and see her melt, and fall in love.
It would also be a bonus to watch her in a funny movie (like Rose Byrne showed in both Neighbors and Bridesmaids), so a rom-com would be the perfect vehicle for her to play both. If she can have romantic chemistry with Tom Cruise, she can have romantic chemistry with any actor she’s paired with, that’s for sure.
7 Tessa Thompson
Tessa Thompson has been working non-stop for more than a decade, but she has barely made any romance movies. She proved she could do them in Sylvie’s Love, where she was electric and mesmerizing as the aforementioned Sylvie, a woman who falls in love but also wants to reach her professional dreams, proving our point of why and how she should do more of these kinds of films. We even have some ideas of rom-coms she could remake.
In the last few years, the actress has been much more involved in the franchise game, being part of the MCU (a love story for her character Valkyrie would also be welcomed), Creed, and Men in Black. All those roles showed how she can be funny, intense, tough, and resourceful, but we would love to see more of her vulnerable side in the she’s-scared-of-falling-in-love kind of way, as we believe she could do some incredible work in that type of film.
6 Jodie Comer
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Killing Eve proved Jodie Comer could do everything. Her acting in that TV series made her scary, but also romantic (in the weirdest way possible), and resourceful. That’s why she could be a great romantic lead. Be it in a period piece or in modern times, Comer could handle any story about her falling in love in the most romantic way possible. Her love-hate relationship with Eva (Sandra Oh) in Killing Eve and the small plot in Free Guy where her character Millie falls in love with Keys (Joe Keery), show she could handle the genre perfectly, and make a rom-com something worth seeing in the theater.
She would probably be okay with doing that kind of movie, as She told The Hollywood Reporter: “That’s what I love and what I really want to try and continue to do for myself and within my work. I want to challenge myself and try to experience different things.”
5 Jung Ho-Yeon
Jung Ho-Yeon was the breakout character in the surprisingly successful Squid Game. Until then, she had worked as a model, but since her appearance in the unique show, she’s been getting many offers in Hollywood. We believe a romance movie could be her next step to stardom in America, showing not only her acting talents, her vulnerability, and surprising smile.
She could play an America-Korean woman who connects with a romantic interest because they both go to the same restaurant, or maybe he’s the one living in Korea, and she becomes her guide in showing everything wonderful happening in Seoul, opening his mind (and his heart). Whatever the role is, we can’t wait to see what she does next, especially if the plot is about falling in love with someone who deserves her.
4 Robin Wright
Robin Wright has an intense, badass demeanor, and she’s a scary ice queen in most of her roles. But it wasn’t always like that. She was Buttercup in The Princess Bride and made a whole generation of kids and teenagers fall in love with her. We believe a romance movie is in order for Wright. One where she can have fun, and find love in her late fifties (there should be more romance movies about falling in love when you’re in your fifties and sixties).
Maybe it could be about a woman who, after her kids leave home for college, goes on a discovery trip of her own to one of those beautiful Greek Islands, or what about a divorcee who falls in love with her high school sweetheart who she hadn’t seen in more than thirty years? Whatever the plot, Wright should be able to show all her acting abilities, making her character evolve from doubtful to full in love during the film’s arc.
Wright has never done what Hollywood expected of her, so a romance movie could be her next, out of the left field, project. On how she never followed Hollywood rules, Wright told IndieWire: “Did they want to create the perfect ingénue of me after Buttercup? They did. I turned down a lot of movies; they didn’t blow my dress up, they didn’t turn me on. I remember there was a turning point after ‘Gump,’ when I turned down the cover of Vanity Fair. That was like blasphemy. You don’t do that. I remember not getting a couple of studio movies that I wanted.”
3 Florence Pugh
Florence Pugh has become one of the greatest actresses of our time. She has chemistry with everyone and, looking at her cooking Instagram stories, she might be fun to hang out with in real life as much as in any movie she leads. That’s why we believe she should do more romance films, so she can explore that part of her acting. She’s had romantic interests before, but more times than not, it ends in the worst way possible (see Midsommar and Don’t Worry Darling).
Her chemistry with Hailee Stanfield in Hawkeye proved Pugh could be a romantic comedy MVP and have some fun playing characters whose worst problem is she’s always the Maid of honor but never the bride (even though she’s beautiful, funny, and has everything a romantic interest would ever want in a partner). Pugh might’ve known we were right, as she’s in the process of filming her first love story with Andrew Garfield. If it’s also a comedy, we approve.
2 Keke Palmer
Keke Palmer has done it all: sing, act, produce, host, and voice podcasts, and yet we’re still waiting to see her in a romantic movie. Some of her roles have had a romantic component, bus she’s never been the lead of her own rom-com, and we believe she would be great at it. She has the charisma, the no-nonsense attitude, and the vulnerability under a tough exterior that would make her a great romantic lead, and would be a different color in her acting palette as we have never seen her fall in love on camera before.
Let’s get Nora Ephron on the phone and make Palmer her next romantic lead, so she can throw zingers while also having one of the most fabulous kitchens ever shown on camera. Palmer has had chemistry with every actor she’s worked with, but what about a love story with her Nope co-star Daniel Kaluuya or a queer story with our last entry Florence Pugh? Whatever the romantic story would be, we know Palmer would hit it out of the park.
1 Saoirse Ronan
Saoirse Ronan is an incredible actress who has already been nominated for four Academy Awards before she was 30. She has made some awesome movies, and although she’s yet to become a rom-com queen, most of them have an element of romance in them. That’s why we believe she should appear in romance movies. Brooklyn and Little Women showed she could swoon in period pieces with the best of them, and Lady Bird proved the same in the 2000s Sacramento. It’s time for her to do one of those films where she’s a working woman in the big city with a very demanding job and doesn’t have the bandwidth for a relationship, or she leaves a cheating boyfriend to go back to her native Ireland, and there she meets a normal, loving man (Paul Mescal could be that man).
Ronan has chemistry with everyone, so whoever gets to be her soulmate, it would work. The perfect combination would be a romantic comedy directed by Greta Gerwig and with Timothée Chalamet as the romantic interest. They’ve already done two movies together, and were great, so their look at what a rom-com in the 2020s should be would be very interesting, and probably, something unique and a bit different from what we’re expecting.
