Listicle: 10 Jane Austen characters we’ve loved on screen

It’s the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Obviously, we picked the 10 best actors who brought her characters to life on screen

Listicle: 10 Jane Austen characters we’ve loved on screen

• 
  Anne Hathaway, Becoming Jane (2007)

  When Jane Austen died in 1817, her family censored many parts of her life and thought it’s best she was remembered as docile Aunt Jane. But Hathaway reminds us that she was also an ambitious, passionate young woman, once in love with Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy). Her lines are almost missiles: “What value is there in an introduction when you cannot even remember my name, indeed can barely stay awake in my presence.”
• 
  Colin Firth, Pride and Prejudice (1995)

  Why is Colin Firth the perfect Mr Darcy? Is it his permanent brooding look or his awkward aloofness? Or how dignified he is even when he emerges from a lake, white shirt almost transparent, and bumps into Elizabeth Bennett who’s visiting his estate? Firth is equal parts class and rizz. Who else could floor us with just one line: “My affections and wishes are unchanged. But one word from you will silence me on this subject forever”?
• 
  Ashley Clements, The Lizzie Bennett Diaries (2012)

  Clements brings Lizzie Bennett into the 21st century by retelling the Pride and Prejudice story via short vlogs on YouTube. Her sharp, fun almost confessional narration is 100% why she’s the secret sauce in the addictive series. The bonus: AMAs in which Lizzie answers hilarious fan questions, including: “Shark vs Lizzie Bennett with a sword. Who’d win?” The series has won an Emmy for its creativity.
• 
  Emma Thompson, Sense and Sensibility (1995)

  There have been many Elinors, but young Emma Thompson plays it so subtle that she makes the sensible Dashwood come alive. (We picked her even as Kate Winslet plays the other sister, Marianne). Fans love this adap. Every scene is like a Regency painting, the costumes are gorgeous. That last scene, when Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) admits he is not married and available to Elinor makes everyone with a pulse just happy cry.
• 
  Judi Dench in Pride & Prejudice (2005)

  Dench’s Lady Catherine de Bourgh leaves every other actor who’s played Darcy’s aunt in the dust. She makes the dowager hard to please but easy to watch. “Do you play the pianoforte, Miss Bennet?” “Do you draw?” “Has your governess left you?” Each query is a barb, to remind Miss Bennet that she’s not worthy of her nephew. There are seven people in this dinner scene (not counting the staff). Dench outshines everyone before the soup is served.
• 
  Nadira Babbar, Bride and Prejudice (2004)

  Trust Gurinder Chadha to Punjabify Austen and cast Aishwarya Rai as Elizabeth Bennet. Rewatch to see how Babbar plays the mother as an unabashed loudmouth. She’s taut as a bow, ready to shoot some off-colour remark. “Don’t say anything too intelligent,” she warns her daughter at one event. She also makes her character funny. When the youngest daughter goes shopping in London, she says, “If we are not bringing back any husbands, and she goes shopping, at least we won’t be going empty-handed.”
• 
  Cosmo Jarvis, Persuasion (2022)

  Love and separation are written in the stars for Anne Elliot (Dakota Johnson) and Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis) in Austen’s last novel. In the Netflix movie, Jarvis plays it all moony and vulnerable, charming but also nursing his resentment over once being rejected by Anne. His crowning moment – when he’s writing her THAT letter, expressing all the longing. He has a tear rolling down his face when she finally hugs him. We like!
• 
  JJ Feild, Northanger Abbey (2007)

  The lesser-known of Austen’s novels is actually the biggest on YA vibes. And as teen fantasies go, Feild as Henry Tilney is the perfect sexy tease to a goth-crazy, wildly imaginative Catherine Morland (Felicity Jones). The meet-cute dance is 90% banter. He smirks like the devil himself. And he knows his muslins. Who wouldn’t be floored?
• 
  Amrita Puri, Aisha (2010)

  Emma’s Harriet Smith is reimagined as a naïve Punjabi kudi, taken in by Delhi’s wealth and sparkle. She trips in heels. She nervously pulls down the hem of her dress. She says “ji” after every hello. We adore her seamless makeover from BTM (Behenji Turned Mod) to Dior diva. We like that she calls polo horsewale hockey. And that she’s got a good heart underneath it all.
• 
  Alicia Silverstone, Clueless (1995)

  Emma from Emma but reimagined for the MTV generation. Cher lives in a Beverly Hills mansion, dresses impeccably and has a killer hair flip. She’s bright (“Hamlet didn’t say To Thine Own Self Be True”) and pro-immigration (“It does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty!”). But like Emma, she’s clueless about love, forging matchmaking disasters until she finds love of her own.