18. Rachel Marron (The Bodyguard)
Rachel Marron is your usual tough-but-sensitive Hollywood female lead, but the underrated classic epic that is The Bodyguard goes to some further lengths to develop nuances in her character. The production claims that Rachels race wasnt specified in the script, and although Whitney Houston certainly brought her own personality and experiences to the role, Rachel Marron is just a character, interesting on her own first and foremost. The plot may involve a run-of-the-mill romance, but she makes her own decisions within it, just the same as Kevin Costners Frank Farmer, that come from a very human place. Rachel truly has her own desires and fears, and is trying to build a successful life for herself, her son Fletcher, and her sister Nicki. She has a nice arc that brings out who she is at heart, and she doesnt make any decisions on the way out of ignorance, shallowness, lack of foresight, or emotional instability, all of which happen with many Hollywood female characters, especially black characters, like Carmen Ejogos and Tika Sumpters roles in the hit remake of Sparkle. In addition to the nevertheless excellent Ejogo and Sumpter, there is a vast amount of talented black actresses out there, but work that falls outside the box of what Hollywood wants is scarce in the mainstream marketplace. Whitney Houston nevertheless did a huge amount with what she got over the course of her career. Imagine how much more revenue Hollywood could gain if it learned even a little bit from The Bodyguard, which in fact embraces Hollywoods conventions while doing something creative with them.