10 Movie Auditions That Changed Cinema Forever

Sigourney Weaver's audition for Alien ended up changing the game for women in the genre arena, because it ultimately went so much further than merely winning the actress a single coveted role.

Though Weaver was widely praised for her performance in Ridley Scott's original sci-fi horror film, the character graduated into a genuine genre icon in James Cameron's sequel Aliens, where Weaver became one of the few actresses to ever receive an Oscar nomination for starring in a horror or action film.

But more than even this, Weaver blazed the trail for basically every female action hero ever since. 

Without Ripley planting such a decisive flag, would we have Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Furiosa (Charlize Theron), and so on?

These brilliant characters are all very much their own, of course, but Weaver nevertheless created the original blueprint for blockbuster cinema, the influence of which continues to be felt almost an entire half-century after that original audition.