Taking a page from Lindsay Lohan's playbook, Helena Bonham Carter will reportedly play Elizabeth Taylor in a made-for-TV movie — but this one is produced by the BBC, rather than Lifetime. The film, titled Burton and Taylor, focuses on the production of the West End play Private Lives in 1983. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who had already been married and divorced twice, played a divorced couple who eventually leave their current partners to get back together during the 63-show run. The plot very much mirrored Taylor and Burton's dramatic story, and the production was reportedly tumultuous, something sure to be reflected in the upcoming film.
Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Queen Elizabeth II's mother in The King's Speech, has experience portraying a legendary lady on screen, as do many other talented actresses. Naomi Watts is stepping into the shoes of the late Princess Diana in next year's film Diana. We've even got some glimpses of Naomi as the famous royal on the set of the film that focuses on the last two years of Diana's life before her tragic death in 1997. And many of Hollywood's finest have taken on the woman of 2012, Queen Elizabeth II, in film and on TV. So many, in fact, that she holds the Guinness World Record for most-portrayed living monarch. One of the best-known portrayals is Helen Mirren in The Queen, who also stars as Alfred Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, in last year's Hitchcock.
There are a growing number of actresses who've played iconic women in history, roles that often garner a lot of award buzz. Let's look back at the stars who've stepped into the shoes of some of the most powerful, influential, and iconic women in history, and look forward to the actresses who have upcoming biopics in the works.
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