A Nightmare on Elm Street star Heather Langenkamp says that there’s a sexist connotation with the phrase “the final girl,” as male characters earn a nickname that doesn’t specify gender. ..
“I don’t think we should call her a ‘final girl’ anymore,” Langenkamp shared with the L.A. Times. “Because one, I want a boy to be able to play a part like this, and they’re never going to call him a ‘final boy’ — they just call him a hero. Just call a hero a hero, regardless of gender.”“To me, it’s at least a little less offensive than ‘final girl’ in some ways; at least she’s at the top of the heap — she’s a queen,” the actress pointed out. “I just hope that for women in my shoes who get the opportunity to play a part like Nancy [in A Nightmare on Elm Street], it doesn’t take them so long to think that they did something right.”
“I’m sitting here like any other scream queen in Hollywood, hoping that they revive their franchise,” Langenkamp shared with Entertainment Weekly. “I’m not alone! I know of lots of other horror heroines who have this little bit of spring in their step thinking about the chance of perhaps being in [new versions of] the movies that they helped make famous as young people. It’s kind of crazy, but it’s definitely something I would love to do.”
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