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Top 15 Actors Who Played Characters of a Different Gender

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Ignacio Weil

Entertainment - May 18th 2026, 23:55 GMT+2

Robin Williams Mrs Doubtfire 1993 1 — 1. Robin Williams — Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

Robin Williams did not just put on a wig and call it a day in *Mrs. Doubtfire*; he built an entire comic engine out of panic, warmth, and very questionable family-court decision-making. The disguise works because Daniel Hillard is both ridiculous and painfully sincere, a man so desperate to stay near his children that he turns domestic sabotage into performance art. Under the prosthetics, Williams keeps the sadness visible, which is why the movie still plays as more than a one-joke comedy. | © 20th Century Fox

Dustin Hoffman Tootsie 1982 1 — 2. Dustin Hoffman — Tootsie (1982)

Dustin Hoffman’s Dorothy Michaels in *Tootsie* is one of those performances where the joke keeps curving back toward the actor himself. Michael Dorsey becomes a better listener, a better performer, and arguably a less exhausting human being only after hiding inside a role he initially treats as a career hack. The movie is very much a product of its era, but Hoffman’s anxious, prickly energy gives it a sharp satirical bite that still makes the Hollywood ego look hilariously fragile. | © Columbia Pictures

Cate Blanchett Im Not There 1 — 3. Cate Blanchett — I’m Not There (2007)

Cate Blanchett playing a Bob Dylan-inspired figure in *I’m Not There* sounds like stunt casting until the movie starts moving and she somehow becomes the most electric Dylan in the room. Her Jude Quinn is all cigarette angles, press-conference riddles, and rock-star irritation, less an impersonation than a nervous system tuned to fame’s worst frequency. Todd Haynes splits Dylan into several identities, but Blanchett gets the most fascinating one: the myth already annoyed at being a myth. | © The Weinstein Company

Cillian Murphy Breakfast on Pluto 2005 — 4. Cillian Murphy — Breakfast on Pluto (2005)

Cillian Murphy gives *Breakfast on Pluto* a performance that floats on charm while quietly carrying a lot of damage underneath. As Kitten Braden, he avoids turning femininity into a costume box; the glamour, the softness, and the fantasy all feel like survival tools in a world that keeps trying to make Kitten smaller. Murphy’s face does half the work, shifting from mischief to heartbreak before anyone else in the scene has even caught up. | © Pathé Pictures

Eddie Redmayne The Danish Girl 2015 — 5. Eddie Redmayne — The Danish Girl (2015)

Eddie Redmayne’s performance as Lili Elbe in *The Danish Girl* sits in that complicated space where awards-season prestige, real history, and modern casting debates all collide. The film is loosely inspired by Lili’s life, and Redmayne leans into delicacy, hesitation, and self-discovery rather than big dramatic fireworks. Alicia Vikander often gives the movie its emotional gravity, but Redmayne’s work remains one of the most widely discussed examples of a major star taking on a trans historical figure. | © Working Title Films

Hilary Swank Boys Dont Cry 1999 — 6. Hilary Swank — Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

Hilary Swank’s Oscar-winning turn in *Boys Don’t Cry* is not comfortable viewing, and it was never meant to be. Playing Brandon Teena, Swank gives the film a raw, unvarnished center, capturing the excitement of being seen alongside the danger of living in a place determined to punish difference. The movie’s handling of real events has been debated, but the performance itself is still remembered for its nerve, physical commitment, and devastating lack of vanity. | © Fox Searchlight Pictures

Glenn Close Albert Nobbs 2011 1 — 7. Glenn Close — Albert Nobbs (2011)

Glenn Close had lived with *Albert Nobbs* long before the film version arrived, and that history shows in every controlled gesture. Albert is not played as a grand transformation but as a person who has learned to disappear in plain sight, working in a Dublin hotel while guarding a private life built out of discipline and fear. Close makes the character’s restraint feel almost physical, as if one careless movement could bring the whole fragile structure down. | © Mockingbird Pictures

Jared Leto Dallas Buyers Club 2013 1 — 8. Jared Leto — Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Jared Leto’s Rayon in *Dallas Buyers Club* became an Oscar-winning role and, later, a flashpoint in conversations about who gets to play trans characters on screen. Inside the movie, Rayon brings wit, vulnerability, and emotional contrast to Ron Woodroof’s abrasive survival story, often softening scenes that might otherwise be all swagger and illness. The performance is theatrical in places, tender in others, and impossible to separate now from the larger debate around Hollywood’s approach to trans representation. | © Focus Features

John Travolta Hairspray 2007 — 9. John Travolta — Hairspray (2007)

John Travolta stepping into Edna Turnblad for *Hairspray* was always going to be a gamble, because the role comes with serious baggage: Divine made it iconic in John Waters’ original, and Harvey Fierstein owned it on Broadway. Travolta does not chase either version exactly, instead turning Edna into a shy, sheltered housewife whose confidence arrives one musical number at a time. The accent is a whole separate adventure, but the sweetness keeps the performance from collapsing into pure prosthetic chaos. | © New Line Cinema

Tilda Swinton Orlando 1992 — 10. Tilda Swinton — Orlando (1992)

Tilda Swinton in *Orlando* feels less like casting than fate doing paperwork. Sally Potter’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf follows a nobleman who lives across centuries and later becomes a woman, and Swinton treats the shift with calm curiosity rather than melodramatic shock. Her performance has an almost mischievous stillness, as if Orlando understands the absurdity of history better than everyone trapped inside it. The result is elegant, strange, and probably the most Tilda Swinton thing Tilda Swinton has ever done. | © Adventure Pictures

Eddie Murphy The Nutty Professor 1996 1 — 11. Eddie Murphy — The Nutty Professor (1996)

Eddie Murphy turned *The Nutty Professor* into a one-man family reunion with enough latex, voices, and table manners to make a normal actor flee the set. Sherman Klump is the heart of the movie, but Murphy’s work as Mama Klump and Granny Klump is where the performance becomes a full-contact comedy experiment. The dinner scene is loud, grotesque, and weirdly precise, proving that Murphy could steal scenes from himself and still somehow look like he was winning the argument. | © Universal Pictures

Barbra Streisand Yentl 1983 1 — 12. Barbra Streisand — Yentl (1983)

Barbra Streisand did not simply star in *Yentl*; she co-wrote it, directed it, produced it, sang it, and basically dragged the entire project into existence through sheer willpower. As Yentl, a young woman who disguises herself as a man to study Jewish law, Streisand plays the role with hunger rather than gimmickry. The film’s romantic complications are messy in the best way, but its real charge comes from watching a character refuse the limits everyone else calls normal. | © United Artists

Patrick Swayze To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar 1995 — 13. Patrick Swayze — To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)

Patrick Swayze’s Vida Boheme in *To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar* is a terrific reminder that movie-star masculinity can survive a fabulous wardrobe just fine. Swayze plays Vida with grace, patience, and a surprising amount of old-Hollywood poise, never treating drag as a cheap punchline. The film is broad and sentimental, absolutely, but his performance gives it a generous spirit, especially when Vida becomes less of a performer passing through town and more of a protector. | © Universal Pictures

Julie Andrews Victor Victoria 1982 — 14. Julie Andrews — Victor/Victoria (1982)

Julie Andrews makes the central joke of *Victor/Victoria* sound more complicated than a tax form: a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman. In lesser hands, that premise could become exhausting fast, but Andrews keeps it crisp, elegant, and surprisingly sharp. Victoria Grant is not just hiding behind a tuxedo; she is using performance to take control of a world that keeps underestimating her. Also, only Andrews could make gender confusion look that beautifully organized. | © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis Some Like It Hot 1959 1 — 15. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis — Some Like It Hot (1959)

Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis spend much of *Some Like It Hot* running from mobsters in dresses, but the movie’s genius is how quickly the disguise becomes a comedy machine with actual personality. Curtis gives Josephine a polished, nervous sophistication, while Lemmon’s Daphne keeps discovering new levels of chaos, especially once romance enters the picture. Billy Wilder turns the setup into one of cinema’s great farces, and the final punchline still lands with ridiculous confidence. | © United Artists

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Gender-bending performances have been part of movies for decades, sometimes as broad comedy, sometimes as disguise, and sometimes as something much more personal. From Robin Williams turning Mrs. Doubtfire into a family classic to Cillian Murphy giving Breakfast on Pluto its wounded glamour, these roles often become impossible to separate from the actors who played them. Not all of them have aged the same way, which makes the topic even more interesting now. Here are 15 famous actors who stepped outside their usual screen image to play characters of a different gender.

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Gender-bending performances have been part of movies for decades, sometimes as broad comedy, sometimes as disguise, and sometimes as something much more personal. From Robin Williams turning Mrs. Doubtfire into a family classic to Cillian Murphy giving Breakfast on Pluto its wounded glamour, these roles often become impossible to separate from the actors who played them. Not all of them have aged the same way, which makes the topic even more interesting now. Here are 15 famous actors who stepped outside their usual screen image to play characters of a different gender.