Gillian Owens is a character played by Nicole Kidman in the movie Practical Magic. Gillian is the sister who runs away to start living life as soon as she can; the party girl who basically goes from man to man trying to find one who sticks. When one of the men is trouble for her, she comes home and needs her sister, Sally, to help her out with a little of the family magicks.
I loved this movie, and also the book by Alice Hoffman that the movie was based on. It’s about being afraid, and how we decide to deal with our fears, especially in the context of relationships. Gillian is a bit of a trouble-maker, the wild-child, and I’m sure I could come up with a few more stereotypical hyphenations, but her place here is as a foil for her more conservative sister.
Willow Rosenberg is a character from the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played by Alyson Hannigan (now-Denisof). The character appears in both the television series and the comic books which continued the story. She is Buffy’s best friend and becomes a powerful witch.
One of the things I enjoy about Willow’s character is that she is incredibly dynamic. In some ways I think her stories, and the changes her character goes through, are more complex and inspiring than even those of the story’s main protagonist. She is constantly trying, succeeding, failing, recovering, and discovering.
Penny is the love interest from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. She is a kind and altruistic person who volunteers at a homeless shelter. We expect throughout the story that she will play a role in changing Billy’s (Dr. Horrible’s) life. And in that we’re not disappointed.
I will also note that the actress who plays Penny, Felicia Day, does actually have red hair.
I had been thinking that I wanted to open up my “red haired” posts to encompass both sexes, and with the announcement that Futurama is going to be coming back to television with all new episodes (thanks, Jon) I figure now is as good a time as any!
Philip J. Fry is the main character of the series Futurama. He winds up being cryogenically frozen for a thousand years, and needs to make his way in the future. He winds up working as a delivery boy for a descendant’s delivery company, and has several amazing and improbably adventures, including one where he travels back in time to become his own grandpa.
He winds up trying very hard to win the heart of Leela, one of the first people he meets in the future. While she rejects him at first, she winds up giving him just enough hope to continue pursuing her.
Here’s the very beginning of Fry’s story, how he winds up in the future through a series of misadventures on New Year’s eve 1999:
Fry is a dreamer and a slacker, but he is a kind person, whose heart is in the right place. I look forward to seeing more of his adventures in 2010!
