Why Sharon From Moneyball Looks So Familiar
It's almost baseball season again, which means if you want to keep your eye on the ball, it's time to revisit 2011's "Moneyball." Yes, that's the film where Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill attempt to get the Oakland As into fighting form on a limited budget in a story based on real events — although it gets much of the true story wrong.
After losing their star players, general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) and assistant manager Peter Brand (Hill) develop a new way of scouting players based on game statistics. Armed with a team of underdogs, they set out into the season to win the World Series. Meanwhile, we get a peek into Beane's life as he co-parents his 12-year-old daughter with his ex-wife, Sharon.
She's not in the movie for long, but the quiet awkwardness between her and Beane made an impression on audiences. If she looks familiar, it's because she's played by Robin Wright, who has been in more than a few iconic movies.
Robin Wright is The Princess Bride
At 18 years old, Robin Wright got her start on the NBC soap "Santa Barbara," but it only took three years for her to truly break out with her iconic role as Buttercup — aka the Princess Bride — in 1987's "The Princess Bride." In the midst of her impending betrothal to an unsavory prince, Buttercup is kidnapped by a trio consisting of André the Giant's big guy Fezzik, Wallace Shawn's small guy Vizzini, and Mandy Patinkin's fencing master Inigo Montoya. Unbeknownst to her, her true love Westley (Cary Elwes) is hot on their heels.
The fantasy-comedy has long since become a cult classic for its endlessly quotable lines, but Wright adored it for the love story in particular: "I loved that it was about true love and that she would never give up and nor would Westley," Wright told People TV (per Entertainment Weekly). "You always dream about as a little girl but I never stopped dreaming about that."
Now, it's hard to imagine Buttercup as anyone else, but the character was challenging to cast: casting director Jane Jenkins auditioned many women for the role, so when she saw Wright, she was ecstatic. "I was bouncing off the walls and screaming at my partner, 'I think I just found Buttercup!'" she told Vice. When Wright came to meet the novel's writer, William Goldman, Jenkins said the sun was lighting up her white dress and blonde hair with a halo. It was a perfect moment: "Bill Goldman looked across the room at her, and he said, 'Well, that's what I wrote.'"
Robin Wright told Forrest to run, and he did
After pining over Westley for years as Buttercup, Robin Wright played an even slower burning romance in 1994's "Forrest Gump." As Jenny, she's the sweet but troubled childhood best friend of Tom Hanks' Forrest, who comes in and out of his life as he runs around the country sticking his fingers in major historical moments. Early on, she has the iconic line — "Run, Forrest, run!" — but afterward she ends up going down her own self-destructive path, dabbling in drugs, singing naked, and dating abusive men.
"She's a lost soul who finds herself," Wright told The Los Angeles Times. "But she is not a tragic figure, at least not more than any other girl going through her 20s and that catharsis." Late in the movie, the day after Jenny admits she loves Forrest and they sleep together, she leaves, inciting Forrest to go on his three-year-long run. However, in the end, Forrest reveals that he's been waiting on the bench for a bus to go see Jenny, since she asked him to come. They've reunited for good in the end, although her terminal illness cuts it short.
Director Robert Zemeckis told the LA Times, "Robin exudes a kind of strength and, at the same time, a vulnerability. She doesn't bring any of her stardom to the role. You don't look at her on-screen and think that this is Robin Wright's interpretation of the character. She's a real chameleon."
Robin Wright is the first female President of the United States... in House of Cards, at least
More recently, Robin Wright became known for starring in Netflix's political drama "House of Cards." She plays the ruthless Claire Underwood, the wife of Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), who's first introduced as the CEO of a non-profit charity. Quickly, though, we learn she's far from a pure do-gooder, but actually has the capacity to be just as heartless as her husband. Through the seasons, she steadily gains power, going from First Lady to Vice President to the first female President of the United States.
Wright was lauded for her portrayal of Claire, receiving an Emmy Nomination for each season. At first, however, she wasn't sure she even wanted to be on the show, she told People TV. When executive producer David Fincher approached her about the part, she said she wanted to keep doing film, not TV, but he told her streaming would be "revolutionary." Nearly a decade later, it's clear that "House of Cards" was one of the series pioneering the streaming landscape we have now, so clearly, he was right.
As for Claire, the character was crucial to her decision to join the show: "I don't want to just play a woman who's arm candy to a politician in a TV show," she said, recounting her feelings before being cast. Of course, Claire has turned out to be far from that and even took over the show for the final season, when Spacey was fired. Critics picked her out as the best part of Season 6.
Robin Wright trained Wonder Woman to fight
After becoming a formidable political figure on "House of Cards," Robin Wright went for the physically challenging role of Antiope in "Wonder Woman." She's Wonder Woman's (Gal Gadot) aunt and the general of the incredibly skilled army of Amazons on the island Themyscira. With fierce love — and initially against Queen Hippolyta's (Connie Nielsen) wishes — Antiope trains Diana to be a warrior, guiding her to become the best of their people. Wright later reprises the role in flashbacks in both "Wonder Woman 1984" and "Justice League."
Wright had to train for the role herself, in horseback riding and martial arts, to get in what she called the best shape of her life. Rather than a deterrent, it was one of the things that drew her to the role, in addition to the movie's themes. She said the "Wonder Woman" movies are "about justice and equality and love, and I'm a sucker for that stuff" (via Collider).
Despite having a fairly small part, Wright was a standout in the film. "She's majestic and elegant and entirely deserving of her own spinoff," critic Hunter Harris wrote for Vulture, remarking that she's clearly underutilized as an action star. "Seeing Robin Wright go to war in 'Wonder Woman' cleared my skin and paid my bills." Alas, Antiope dies in the first battle of "Wonder Woman," sacrificing herself to save Diana.
In Blade Runner 2049, Robin Wright is Ryan Gosling's boss
Amidst Robin Wright's "House of Cards" tour de force, and in between donning the Amazonian leathers for the DCEU, she took a turn into sci-fi with "Blade Runner 2049." Denis Villeneuve's 2017 sequel picks up the cyberpunk world of androids from the original "Blade Runner," and skips ahead 30 years to delve further into the conflict between humans and the synthetic replicants.
Like Wright's other roles around that time, she plays a formidable woman in a position of power: Lieutenant Joshi of the Los Angeles Police Department. She's the blade runner boss, giving orders to Ryan Gosling's Officer K as he uncovers secrets and tracks down the original blade runner, Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard. In a review for Variety, Peter Debruge wrote, "Putting her 'House of Cards' severity to excellent use, Wright is the standout in an all-around terrific (and largely female) supporting cast."
From princess to troubled love interest to tough leader, Wright's got it all down.