If I, Robot gets made into a movie who do you think could really play Susan Calvin well enough for the hardcore Asimov fans not to go totally apeshit?
So far Sigourney Weaver gets my vote.
Susan Sarandon
Susan Gibney
It’s really not a hard role – just your normal anal-retentive, anti-social, prefers the company of robots to people, female scientist cliche. Take your standard A or B-list actress, put her hair in a bun, give her a white lab coat, and there you are. The biggest problem in today’s Hollywood would be avoiding giving her a love interest – it’s been 25 years or so since I read the stories, but as I recall, that only happened once, it was unrequited, (and it might have been a robot).
I have to admit, Sigourney Weaver does the requisite cold and unappealing personality very well. Sharon Stone could do it too. But then again, you could cast Kathy Bates just as easily.
The first time I read I, Robot, I was already an adult. While I was reading, I kept picturing Susan Calvin in my mind as Lilith from Cheers. So Bebe Neuwirth.
Not quite.
Susan is a bit deeper than the stereotypical misanthopic b*tch because her cynical nature arises from her noticing every single little ugly and petty trait her fellow humans display due to her high intelligence and rzor-sharp observational skills. She doesn’t quite know how to forgive anyone for being human, least of all herself.
I agree with Sock Munkey and support Susan Sarandon.
If Daria were human instead of a cartoon character it sounds like she’d be perfect for the role.
Linda Fiorentino - if she call pull off working in a morgue and being the great grand niece of Jesus… 
What about Young Susan?
Judy Dench ?
From this article in Variety, http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030328/film_nm/robot_1
A picture of Ms Moynahan is here, http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030328/170/3nfzr.html.
Helen Mirren immediately leaps to mind.
That’s the worse possible choice I can think of. And what’s up with the story anyway?
Jodie Foster
I thought of Foster but I think she is much too pretty.
All of the choices given so far are wrong. They’re all too pretty. (Well, maybe not Kathy Bates, but there’s no mention of Susan Calvin being heavy-set, and anyway Bates is too old for the earlier stories.) Hollywood will never make an acceptable version of this story, because they always insist in casting a pretty actress in the lead. I don’t think that there are even any actresses in Hollywood with significant acting careers who could play the role, since it’s nearly impossible for a woman who’s not at least moderately attractive to get cast in major roles in films. They would have to discover an unknown actress to be able to correctly cast this film. The whole point in some of the stories revolves around the fact that Susan Calvin is unattractive. Not the “dowdy-looking but sort of pretty when she takes off her glasses and lets down her hair” thing that’s as close as Hollywood ever gets to unattractiveness, but real, honest-to-God homeliness, which Hollywood has decided to erase from existence.
Wendell Wagner
I never got that from reading the stories. I always took it that Susan Calvin was ‘plain’; no make-up, no lipstick, ‘professional’ dress. The only things that men found ‘unattractive’ about her were the same charactor traits usually associated with men; plain speaking, stubborness, etc.
The only actress that could have played the part (and played it perfectly in my estimation) would have been Katherine Hepburn. If i were forced to choose a contemporary actress, it would be Glenn Close.
Ooo, good call.
I always pictured Susan as sort of thin and plain but with piercing eyes. Could achieve “I probably wouldn’t kick her outta bed” status if she had reason to and a clue as to how to go about it.
Hepburn. Perfect. It’s all about the attitude.
Need someone smart, with the ability to act… Or at least, act smart. Siggy Weaver?