“Princess” again being a vague term.
6. Patricia Petibon (Thumbelina, Thumbelina)
Patricia Petibon is an opera singer, cast by my dear friend who knows these things, and as I don’t actually remember Thumbelina, I’ll take her word for it.
5. Kaley Cuoco (Odette, The Swan Princess)
“I don’t actually remember it that well” is going to be a frequent refrain here, but Kaley Cuoco has a sweet and yet versatile face. One that can be polite and sassy and kind in turn.
4. Anna Paquin (Kayley, Quest for Camelot)
Okay, so literally my entire recollection of Quest for Camelot is that she wore pants and swordfought and in Buffy 2×14, “Innocence,” when Buffy and Angel were fighting in the movie theater in the mall, it was in front of a series of Quest for Camelot posters. Judge not. My first thought was Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones, because a brown-haired girl who wears pants and swordfights? Sounds like Arya to me. But she’s, you know, fourteen years old, and looks like she’s twelve, so that’s irrelevant. Anna Paquin is feisty, and I love her, so there.
3. Alyson Hannigan (Fiona, Shrek)
We wanted so badly just to use Sutton Foster, because she’s perfect, but it’s cheating. We weren’t using voice actresses or stage actresses or actresses who’d played the part in an unrelated media form (Ginnifer Goodwin for Snow White, Q’Orianka Kilcher for Pocahontas). And we just wanted Alyson Hannigan somewhere. So it happened.
2. Jaimie Alexander (Crysta, FernGully)
Now, this one may have been aided largely by a Google search of “black haired actresses with green eyes,” and I realize that Crysta’s eyes are a ridiculous seafoam color, but I’m content with my choice. Jaimie Alexander is a badass, period.
1. Rooney Mara (Anastasia, Anastasia)
Who better to play one of my original heroines of life than one of my newest heroines of life? Anastasia was my favorite movie for years and years and years, and I’m very attached to it, so I wanted this to be a choice I was very, very resolute about. And it is. I think Rooney Mara is just so many things that work: she can be tough, but she can be vulnerable, she can be smart, but she can go pretty if she needs to, she can save the day, she can take care of herself.
–your fangirl heroine.
