Came here to make sure these were mentioned. I can leave happy now.
Chloe Grace Moretz. Hit Girl deserves a mountain all her own! Also, Peta Wilson.
Definitely stretching the “action star” idea, but what about someone from days of yore? The early silent film stars like Lillian Gish put themselves through absolute hell. And even some slightly later movies like Gone with the Wind or African Queen were filmed under conditions that would never happen now.
Yeah, if there’s a minor league edition, Hit Girl should be in there.
Also Dafne Keen from Logan. That eight-year-old nailed the fuck out of that role.
This is what I was going to post.
Okay. Never thought I’d be that guy. But, who? Looked through IMDB and I’ve never seen a single one of those movies.
Put me down for Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow), Uma Therman (Kill Bill) and Charlize Theron (Atomic Blonde).
Add me to the list of people that have never heard of Cynthia Rothrock. Checking her Wikipedia page, it seems she was in a lot of, basically, direct to video movies. I dunno, maybe Tiger Claws 3 really broke new ground, but her CV doesn’t seem that impressive to me.
Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton for sure. Probably Charlize Theron too. Fury Road is an all time great action film and Atomic Blonde is pretty fantastic too. Finish it out with Michelle Yeoh.
Wonder Woman + Fast and Furious = Gal Gadot?
Hmmm, we’re going to need a reeeeally long Mount(ain Range) Rushmore…
Or multiple ones: "Now on your left, folks, you’ll see the Teenage Female Action Star Mount Rushmore, and here’s the Asian Badass Mount Rushmore. *Please, Mrs. McGillicuddy, if you’re going to wear your souvenir cape, keep it inside the motorcoach at all times. *We’re not going to have time for the Golden Age ‘Gals’ Mount Rushmore, but on our way home the bus will stop for a few minutes at the Badass Senior Women Mount Rushmore… Can someone please help Mrs. McGillicuddy get unstuck from her window?"
I’d put her ahead of anybody else mentioned so far.
She was primarily active in the 80s and 90s, 100% B-movies or worse. Think Skinemax quality, minus most of the T&A (they looked a lot like cheap skin flicks, but they were actually serious, if extremely low-budget, action movies, as my horny 13-year-old self will attest). If you watched a lot of late-night premium cable in the 80s and 90s like me, you’d instantly recognize her.
Yeah, that’s a fair few.
Linda Hamilton also had a couple of other roles that might count, Black Moon Rising and Dante’s Peak. Possibly also her turn as a former spy in the TV show Chuck.
For a lot of action films with a woman lead, it feels more like the producer wanted to make “an action film with a woman lead” and simply cast some woman to do it. Very few of the women have seemed like they had the innate personality and approach to it that made it seem like they were themselves a real action star. Like, you can throw Orlando Bloom into Troy and Pirates of the Caribbean and all - and by resume you would have to accept that he’s an “action star” - but he just really isn’t.
Michelle Yeoh is not only the first to pretty well pull it off and inhabit that space, but possibly the only one on the list. (Granted, I haven’t seen anything by Cynthia Rothrock). And while it’s true that she hasn’t had any big hits outside of Hong Kong (except Crouching Tiger), if you watch the films that she starred in with Jacky Chan, she’s clearly the co-star not just the eye candy. If you can hold your own as an action icon standing side to side with f’in Jacky Chan, then you are an unstoppable beast. That woman is by and far the clear winner on this list.
The closest person to her would be Lucy Lawless, except that she never made any movies. But if I wanted to expand beyond popcorn films, then she would be the only person up there with Michelle Yeoh.
Gal Gadot was good in Wonder Woman, but I would want to see her in a few more films with different directors before accepting that she’s got the right stuff to be an action star.
Chloe Moretz was certainly something in the Kick-Ass movies. If she can keep it up under different directors, I’d certainly give it to her.
(Mother Russia from Kick-Ass 2 deserves a very honorable mention! 
)
Sigourney Weaver only ever made one movie, Aliens, where she was vaguely actionish and even that was only for one scene and she was in a mecha power suit. Maybe she could have achieved it, I don’t know, but I wouldn’t carve someone into the side of a mountain because she had one action scene in one movie, in a 40 year career of not being an action star.
Similarly with Linda Hamilton. She looked buff and played the part well in Terminator 2, but I don’t know that she ever actually did anything in that movie beyond looking buff and scary. All the action was between Arnie and Robert Patrick. And, outside of that one movie, she overwhelmingly just played love interests. Carrie Fisher did about the same amount of shooting in Star Wars as Hamilton did in T2, and no one considers her to be an action star. The only difference between them is that Fisher was in a dress and was called “princess”. Again, this isn’t to say that Hamilton couldn’t have done some kick ass action films, and lead them successfully, just that we haven’t seen it.
Angelina Jolie did decently in all of her films. I liked Mr. and Mrs. Smith and between her and Pitt, I think she does a better action hero. But, none of her films are very memorable. Same for Scarlett Johansson; decent filmography but her solo films don’t stand out as being particularly memorable or like she was fundamental to their success. Both of them are better than the combined opus of Mila Jovovich, but I think you need to have excelled not just succeeded in order to get onto the side of a mountain.
Charlize Theron has done really well in a number of action films, but I feel like she’s more of a dramatic actor who does serious well enough to be able to play action films. She’s more like Tom Hardy than Arnold Schwarzenegger.
These statements are ignorant and WRONG.
Michelle Yeoh has been in several hit U.S. movies since 2000.
I’d probably go with Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Milla Jovovich, and Linda Hamilton.
For context, Jackie Chan wouldn’t be on my Mt Rushmore of male action heroes, which would be Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, then a choice of two among Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel and Jason Statham. So I wouldn’t look to Jackie’s costars for my female Mt Rushmore either.
You should have never minded before you started, because that’s in really bad taste.
Wow.
Linda Hamilton and Sigourney Weaver both fought off lots of bad guys physically in their major movies. I really don’t see how you can watch those movies and not think that. Linda Hamilton, Terminator 1, was the person who killed the Terminator. In T2, she foguht off multiple people breaking out of the asylum, shot at the T1000 many, many times even when severely wounded, and nearly killed him herself. Weaver was the main hero of Alien and Aliens (and Alien 3, which was terrible, but should still count).
It’s a real stretch to say they weren’t action movie stars.
The problem with female action stars, and why the game is/was so hard, is because it’s hard to find women who carried multiple action movies. A lot of people mentioned in this thread suffered from the same problem that I said Jolie suffers. Granted, she’s been in action-y type movies, but just because they’re in the movie, they don’t have much of an action part in them.
Hell, I’ll say the same with Weaver and Hamilton, but their parts are so iconic and broke such ground that I want to include them still.
thank you
Re:my bolding: If you’ve only seen Jackie chan’s American releases, then yes. But nobody who has ever seen Police Story or any other of dozens of his hong Kong movies from the 80s and 90s could ever claim this and be credible.