With the release of her movie Spy this week, Melissa McCarthy becomes the latest female to enter the spy game. Over the years, we’ve watched a lot of ladies kick butt as secret agents, and they make it look so effortlessly cool. Here are a few that have inspired us:
1. Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow (Alias)
The wigs, the costumes, the different accents and languages, the fight skills: Sydney Bristow was the ULTIMATE.
2. Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison (Homeland)
We love that just because she’s a CIA agent, it doesn’t mean she’s perfect. She deals with bipolar disorder and still tries to save the world.
3. Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah Walker (Chuck)
She’s beautiful, she’s strong, and she has a soft spot for nerds.
4. Maggie Q as Nikita (Nikita)
She’s a spy and an assassin on a revenge mission – don’t mess with her.
5. Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt (Salt)
She’s accused of being a double agent and goes on the run to clear her name. We certainly wouldn’t have the guts to chase her!
6. Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings (The Americans)
She’s a Soviet KGB officer posing as an American in the 1980s, and that makes things wonderfully complicated.
7. Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 (Get Smart)
She’s the more experienced agent to Steve Carell‘s bumbling Maxwell Smart. Show ’em who’s boss, girl!
8. Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter (Agent Carter)
She’s a female spy in a male-dominated 1940’s world. People sometimes underestimate her – but never for very long.
9. Piper Perabo as Annie Walker (Covert Affairs)
In the beginning of the show, she’s a CIA trainee who suddenly gets thrust into the field. But she quickly proves she’s a born spy.
10. Jessica Chastain as Maya (Zero Dark Thirty)
She’s based on a real life character who helped bring down Osama bin Laden. Doesn’t get more badass than that.
11. Angelina Jolie as Jane Smith (Mr. & Mrs. Smith)
We’ll watch Angelina play a spy any day. She could play one in every movie and we’d be satisfied.
12. Carla Gugino as Ingrid Cortez (Spy Kids)
Her kids thought she was a boring, normal mom, but she showed them she was anything but.
Who’s YOUR favorite kick-butt female spy?
