Top 10 Best Catwoman Performances

The Top Ten

  1. Michelle Pfeiffer - Batman Returns

    Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress and producer. She gained major popularity during the 1980s and 1990s. Pfeiffer has earned international acclaim and numerous awards for her performances in both comedic and dramatic roles.

    Love Anne, but Michelle is incomparable and unbeatable.

    Number one. She made Catwoman sizzle and have depth!

    She's number one in everything!

  2. Anne Hathaway - The Dark Knight Rises

    Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress and singer. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Millburn, New Jersey. Hathaway was inspired to act by her mother, Kate McCauley Hathaway, a former actress.

    As a high school student, she was nominated for the Paper Mill Playhouse Rising... read more

    DUH. Pure purrfection!

  3. Julie Newmar - Batman (Seasons 1 & 2)

  4. Camren Bicondova - Gotham

  5. Zoë Kravitz - The Batman

    I feel like she was way more genuine than Hathaway or any of the others. One of the best aspects of The Batman.

    She plays the perfect Catwoman.

  6. Grey DeLisle - Infinite Crisis and The Batman: Arkham video games

    Erin Grey Van Oosbree, credited as Grey DeLisle and Grey Griffin, is an American voice actress and singer-songwriter. She is known for her voice work in numerous animated series and video games, including roles such as Daphne Blake in the Scooby-Doo franchise and Azula in Avatar: The Last Airbender... read more

  7. Eartha Kitt - Batman (Season 3)

  8. Jennifer Carpenter - Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

    Jennifer Leann Carpenter is an American actress born on December 7, 1979, in Louisville, Kentucky. She gained widespread recognition for her role as Debra Morgan on Showtime's Dexter, a performance that earned her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in Television in 2009. Carpenter reprised the... read more

  9. Lee Meriwether - Batman: The Movie

  10. Adrienne Barbeau - Batman: The Animated Series

    11. The Newcomers
  11. ?

    Melendy Britt - The New Adventures of Batman

  12. ?

    Jane Webb - The Batman/Superman Hour

    13. The Contenders

  13. Gina Gershon - The Batman

  14. Maggie Baird - Birds of Prey

  15. Halle Berry - Catwoman (2004)

    Halle Maria Berry is an American actress. She won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the romantic drama Monster's Ball. As of 2018, she remains the only Black woman to have won the Best Actress Oscar.

    I think both the public and the Razzies confuse a weak screenplay with a poor performance. Berry best embodied the character and attitude of Catwoman. On the one hand, as Catwoman, she has the cat-like playfulness that only Michelle Pfeiffer matched. She's all about having fun and indulging her own pleasures, yet she remains likable. While she now has the instincts of a cat, she also retains human reason, intelligence, a sense of justice, and softer emotions. This allows her to choose to use her cat instincts for good, if she wants to.

    Pfeiffer, on the other hand, was brilliant as Catwoman but lacked a bit of that humane side. Yes, she has the romance with Bruce Wayne, but she comes across as solely a badass character. Berry, however, could be both badass and soft, emotional. Some of this is due to the screenplay (of which "Batman Returns" definitely had the better), but it's the actress's job to interpret the role. In her out-of-costume scenes, Pfeiffer's character stays pretty strong, while Berry becomes more feminine. The latter is more credible in three ways:

    1. The cat instincts add to her characteristics but don't change them.

    2. Real-life cats aren't always in playful fight mode.

    3. When you're masked and anonymous, you're more likely to be extroverted than when people see you naturally.

    This is not meant to criticize Michelle Pfeiffer's performance in any way. Far from it - she completely sells Catwoman. But to me, Berry's performance is more interesting, despite her movie being significantly weaker (though it's not as terrible as it's made out to be. It's just very lame and uninspired).

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