# Movies with Women playing Men (and Vice-Versa). NOT like Mrs., Doubtfire **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [October 12, 2023, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457 "2023-10-12T11:36:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/61 "2023-10-12T19:33:42Z")
First, an anomaly that probably doesn’t fit the op’s criteria: _Hamlet_ (1921) – Asta Nielson plays the title role, but among many other interesting changes to the play, the part has been rewritten as a female. - [Hamlet (1921) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012249/?ref_=fn_al_tt_15) Few films top the gender complexities of _Swordsman II_ (1992). Master Asia, who wants to rule China, has castrated himself to get supernatural power. As he transmogrifies into a woman, his girlfriend wonders why they haven’t slept together recently. The film’s hero (Jet Li) later “sleeps with” Asia before finding out the truth about him/her. Variously male or female, Asia is played by Brigitte Lin, an actress of glamorously androgynous looks. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/62 "2023-10-12T20:59:14Z")
Sharon Baird in [Ratboy](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091827/) from 1986. Not only was she so heavily made up she barely looked human, but she was billed as S. L. Baird. Bonus. Sharon Baird was one of the original Mouseketeers. Baird as Ratboy [![](https://pics.filmaffinity.com/Ratboy-393603575-large.jpg) ](https://pics.filmaffinity.com/Ratboy-393603575-large.jpg) Baird as Mousketeer [![](https://www.domesticatedcompanion.com/wp-content/uploads/cmg_images/146658/rid_ee51d4dcaeb4828ddcf212d4defa6719/14-10.jpg.pro-cmg.jpg) ](https://www.domesticatedcompanion.com/wp-content/uploads/cmg_images/146658/rid_ee51d4dcaeb4828ddcf212d4defa6719/14-10.jpg.pro-cmg.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/63 "2023-10-12T21:55:38Z")
Would _Predestination_ count? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/64 "2023-10-12T22:25:54Z")
Tilda Swinton in **Suspiria**. She played a female character, but also the old doctor and no reference is made to it being her or the role being played by a female. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/65 "2023-10-12T23:37:51Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Ahem. When I saw the thread title, I thought, surely I will be able to post this very obscure movie and even more obscure role as an instance. But nooooo, it had to be the first one on your list. I just finished reading a book on Val Lewton where the author discussed horror movies by different director/producers, and _The Old Dark House_ was one. And I was going to come here and say I knew where your “name” came from. But I forgot. But, yeah, now I know! ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/66 "2023-10-13T14:27:04Z")
John Candy played two roles in the execrable _Nothing But Trouble_, and one of them (Eldona Valkenheiser) was a woman. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/67 "2023-10-14T02:06:57Z")
[Charlie’s Aunt](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033457/) stage play turned into a movie ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/68 "2023-10-14T04:25:39Z")
Probably doesn’t meet the OP’s criteria, since it’s a male character in drag, not a male actor playing a female role, or vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/69 "2023-10-14T06:15:53Z")
The TV show Drunk History had at least one episode with women portraying men. Alia Shawkat played Alexander Hamilton and Aubrey Plaza played Aaron Burr. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/70 "2023-10-14T11:33:21Z")
Adam Sandler played brother and sister in that terrible film with Al Pacino a few years ago. I’ve forgotten the name and it doesn’t merit looking it up! ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/71 "2023-10-14T11:57:13Z")
When filiming “LOTR:The Return of the King”, a casting call went out for extras with horseback riding expertise for the battle scenes. There were not enough suitable male respondents but there were a lot of women. A great many of the mounted warriors in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields were women in beards. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/72 "2023-10-14T14:43:04Z")
_Jack & Jill_ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/73 "2023-10-14T15:01:17Z")
It occurs to me that Mrs. Doubtfire does, in fact, qualify for the OP’s criteria. No, not the movie: The fictitious TV show that the movie character ends up creating at the end. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/74 "2023-10-14T16:14:10Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > _Jack & Jill_ That’s the one 👍 ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/75 "2023-10-14T19:51:39Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > Alia Shawkat played Alexander Hamilton and Aubrey Plaza played Aaron Burr. I loved that particular one. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/76 "2023-10-15T00:07:30Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > And Alec Guinness in **Kind Hearts and Coronets** , where he played nearly all the successive murder victims of both sexes. Also the first actor/movie I thought of. I love the end-credits where there’s just a big left curly brace **{** between Alec Guinness and all those characters he played. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/77 "2023-10-15T01:40:08Z")
One of the final gags in _[Carry On Spying](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_Spying)_ is that the head of the evil organization has the unmistakable body of [a woman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Furse) but the deep voice of a man. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/78 "2023-10-15T10:52:16Z")
Speaking of Tilda Swinton, in the MCU Doctor Strange movies she plays the “Ancient One”, who in the comics at least is a male character. I cannot figure out if the movie version is supposed to be female instead, though. And speaking of Hamlet, if you count a play-within-a-movie, Kenneth Branagh’s 1995 In the Bleak Midwinter is about a (fictional) stage production of Hamlet. In the cast, the (real-life, well actually he’s deceased but you know what I mean) gay male actor John Sessions plays a gay male actor named Terry Du Bois who in the fictional production plays the straight-female role of Queen Gertrude. Whew, that was more complicated than I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/79 "2023-10-15T11:03:18Z")
And OMG how could I forget filmed opera productions? There are boatloads of operas with female singers in the “travesti” roles where the character is male but the vocal range is soprano or mezzo-soprano. (Many such roles were originally written for male castrati/eunuchs but were taken over by female singers as the practice of mutilating boys to produce male sopranos fell out of favor.) To complicate matters further, many of the male travesti characters are required by the opera plot to dress up as women at some point, so what’s being presented is a female singer playing a male character pretending to be a woman. And if that’s not complicated enough, there are also opera travesti roles the other way around, where the character is female but the role is usually sung by a man. Anyway, if filmed opera productions count for the OP’s criteria, then we got a million of 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457/80 "2023-10-15T11:51:12Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Speaking of Tilda Swinton, in the MCU Doctor Strange movies she plays the “Ancient One”, who in the comics at least is a male character. I cannot figure out if the movie version is supposed to be female instead, though. Both Strange and Mordo consistently refer to the Ancient One as “she”. “She’s not who you think she is.” - Dr. Strange “She does draw power from the Dark Dimension!” - Mordo [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-women-playing-men-and-vice-versa-not-like-mrs-doubtfire/991457.md?page=5)