Hollywood and Gender

I was just reading through the Entertainment Weekly Summer Movie Preview (doesn't seem to be online) and some quotes from the makers of Angelina Jolie's new movie, Salt, stood out to me. Tom Cruise was originally cast for the role, but he backed out after deciding it was too similar to his Mission Impossible character. Is Hollywood doing the stereotyping here or just being realistic about the way their audience will stereotype?

But the process was a bit trickier than just changing the hero's name and adding high heels. "In the original script, there was a huge sequence where Edwin Salt saves his wife, who's in danger," says Noyce. "And what we found was when Evelyn Salt saved her husband in the new script, it seemed to castrate his character a little. So we had to change the nature of that relationship." In the end, Salt's husband, played by German actor August Diehl (Inglourious Basterds), was made tough enough that he didn't need saving, thank you very much. . . .

"We expect different things from men and women, both emotionally and physically," she says. "For example, a man can have a character arc in which he discovers his heart at the end--that would never be a surprise for a woman."

(FYI - Ripley in Alien was originally written as a man.)