Top 20 Rom Com Characters Who Are Terrible Role Models
#20: Erica Sutton “40 Days and 40 Nights” (2002)
There will be those who think Matt Sullivan is the worst role model from this early 2000s rom-com. However, our focus is on his love interest, Erica Sutton. For one thing, she routinely ignores what most would consider Matt’s boundaries, like the fact that he didn’t once reciprocate her attempts at conversation during their first meeting. Or his awkwardness in response to her physical advances. Then when Erica finds out about Matt’s chastity pledge, she’s less than understanding. To cap it all off, when Matt’s ex takes advantage of him while he’s handcuffed to his bed, Erica gets angry at Matt. She storms off off without letting him explain, or expressing sympathy for him as a victim of sexual assault.
#19: Rachel “Something Borrowed” (2011)
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Look, we understand that Rachel had a crush on Dex years ago, before her best friend Darcy ever got together with him. However, once they were a couple — and especially once they were engaged — Rachel needed to just back off. Just like Phoebe once told a different Rachel that confessing her love to an about-to-get-married Ross was wrong, this Rachel telling Dex about her long-lasting crush was kind of inappropriate. And that’s before Rachel and Dex even sleep together — for which we put the blame on both equally. Yes, it mostly works out for the two women in the end, but that doesn’t make it the right path to imitate.
#18: Anna Marks “He's Just Not That Into You” (2009)
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We completely appreciate that when it comes to affairs, all of the parties involved are responsible. However, in the case of Ben and Anna, we have to give the bad role model edge to the latter. Sure, Ben flirts with her as much as she flirts back. He also tells her that his marriage isn’t very solid. But he puts it out there that the two of them can only be friends. That doesn’t stop Anna from pursuing him until she gets what she wants. In most situations that kind of dogged determination and never-give-up attitude would be praised. But in this case, not so much.
#17: Holly Golightly “Breakfast at Tiffany's” (1961)
There’s no doubting the fact that Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly is an iconic film character. But should she be a role model? We think not. Her occupation as a socialite — and charging a fee for time spent with her — leads to her pushing away relationships that could be more meaningful. She also makes money helping out a jailed mob boss, which is a more black and white example of her flawed character. In the end, she chooses love and a good guy, but for most of the film she just uses people to fill her emotional void.
#16: Zack Siler “She's All That” (1999)
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We know that Zack and Laney fall in love and wind up together in the end, but let’s not also forget how they got there. The two only started spending time together because Zack wanted to win a bet with his friends that he could turn any unpopular girl into high school royalty. In the beginning, it’s hard to see his attempts at friendship and affection as anything but fake and manipulative. It seems like he’s just trying to stroke his big-man-on-campus ego after his girlfriend cheated on him. These actions are obviously nothing to be emulated.
#15: Melanie “Sweet Home Alabama” (2002)
Reese Witherspoon is a talented actress and savvy businesswoman who is a great role model for kids young and old. However, her character in 2002’s “Sweet Home Alabama” is definitely not one to look up to. Melanie married her childhood sweetheart when she got pregnant. She left him when she had a miscarriage. Then she concocted a whole new identity and got engaged to a man without telling him anything about her past. Though he is ultimately very understanding, Melanie still goes on to dump her new fiance at the altar to get back together with the first husband she’d abandoned years earlier. Oh, and she also had too much to drink and outed one of her friends at a bar in front of everyone.
#14: Sandy Olsson & Danny Zuko “Grease” (1978)
After a summer romance, two teenagers assume that they’ll never see each other again. That all changes when one of them shows up at Rydell High School where the other is leader of a greaser gang. You’d think they’d be so happy to see each other, and while that’s obviously the case for new student Sandy, Danny — in order to keep up his bad boy rep — blows her off. If you have to be a jerk to someone you care about in order to be cool, then that’s not the kind of cool you should want to be. As for Sandy, not only does she forgive Danny, but at the end of the film she also completely changes her look and attitude in order to appeal to him.
#13: Tom Hansen “500 Days of Summer” (2009)
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There’s nothing wrong with wanting true love and trying to find “the one.” That’s what Tom Hansen wanted in one of the great rom-coms of the aughts, “500 Days of Summer.” However, there’s also nothing wrong with Summer Finn’s desire to not get into a committed romance. The issue comes when Tom agrees to the casual relationship terms, while really hoping and pushing for things to end up in the serious realm. Summer, for her part, is always honest about her feelings, whereas Tom overlooks many incompatibilities in his desperate desire for true love. Which isn’t fair to her — or to him for that matter.
#12: Lucy Eleanor Moderatz “While You Were Sleeping” (1995)
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If you’ve only seen the first few minutes of “While You Were Sleeping,” you might question Lucy’s placement on this list. In those first few minutes, Lucy isn’t just a role model, she’s an actual hero — saving Peter Callaghan from an oncoming train. Lucy’s valiant status drops when she’s accidentally taken for this stranger’s fiancée and doesn’t correct the mistake. Instead she leans into it, lying to his family while he’s in a coma. Then when he wakes, she keeps up the lie, allowing him to believe he has amnesia. She even accepts his eventual proposal all while falling in love with his brother.
#11: Mary Fiore “The Wedding Planner” (2001)
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The titular planner of the film, Mary Fiore meets local pediatrician Steve Edison when he comes to her rescue. It’s a meet cute for sure, and their initial connection seems romantic, but Mary soon discovers that Steve is actually the fiancé of one of her new clients. Rather than make the arguably more professional decision and remove herself from working on their wedding, she instead continues as if nothing happened. This practically guarantees that the wedding will get broken up. Love is great and all, but not all of us are willing to mess up another relationship and risk our career over it.
#10: Gigi “He's Just Not That Into You” (2009)
That’s right: we’ve got another entry from the film adaptation of the homonymous self-help book! We all get our signals crossed when it comes to romance sometimes, but Gigi Phillips takes the cake! After repeatedly finding herself mistaking men’s behavior as romantic interest, Gigi is coached by Alex on how to read their signals correctly. However, she still manages to confuse his attempt to help her with feelings on his part; driving him away. Even worse, he turns around and decides he does have feelings for her, effectively making it so that Gigi learns nothing from the experience. She also largely seems to define her life by her ability to find a partner, which isn’t a healthy mentality, even if it is common in romantic comedies.
#9: Joe Fox “You've Got Mail” (1998)
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The owner of a large chain of bookstores, Joe Fox engages in an attempt to run the smaller bookshop around the corner, owned by Kathleen Kelly, out of business. However, the twist is that Joe and Kathleen are also falling in love via anonymous emails. Oh, and did we mention they’re both already in committed relationships? While Kathleen doesn’t come off great either, Joe’s manipulation of her after discovering their connection is reminiscent of catfishing, and on top of that, his destruction of her professional dreams is just terrible.
#8: John Bender “The Breakfast Club” (1985)
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The rebellious, wisecracking delinquent of the titular group of students serving detention, John Bender is certainly entertaining, offering many of the film’s most memorable lines. However, Bender is generally unpleasant to everyone around him, mocking and putting down his fellow students and the principal alike. Worst of all though, he sexually harasses his eventual love interest, Claire, several times and drives her to tears. Contrary to what movies in the 1980s purported, that’s not the way to win a girl’s heart. While Bender’s abusive home life is sympathetic, it certainly doesn’t excuse his actions.
#7: Annie Reed “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993)
Sam Baldwin is a widower whose son Jonah convinces his father to talk on the radio about how he misses his wife. This sparks interest across the country, particularly from women, who become enamored with Sam, including reporter Annie Reed, who is engaged. Annie breaks it off with her fiancé, but not before travelling across the country to secretly watch Sam and his son play — albeit because Jonah led her on. We’re meant to sympathize with Annie, but the only difference between her and the other many creepy women who fall for Sam is that it works out for her because she’s the heroine.
#6: Julianne Potter “My Best Friend's Wedding” (1997)
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Just because she’s played by America’s sweetheart, doesn’t mean she’s automatically a good person. Quite the opposite, in fact. Julianne Potter’s best friend and “safety net” Michael is set to be married to someone else. Instead of just telling Michael how she feels, Julianne spends most of the film engaging in underhanded acts of sabotage to split him and his fiancée apart. While she eventually realizes what an awful person she’s been, Julianne still manages to make plenty of ethically and legally questionable decisions along the way.
#5: Beca Mitchell “Pitch Perfect” franchise (2012-)
Anna Kendrick is a great actress, but even she can’t save Beca Mitchell from being insufferable. Despite being sent to college on her father’s dime, something most college students would kill for these days, Beca is upset with her father and would rather move to L.A. to become a DJ. Her reluctance to attend classes is only exacerbated when she reluctantly joins the acapella group, which, contrary to what this series might suggest, isn’t exactly a great career move either. Beca’s attitude… is the worst. Oh, and this has nothing to do with her role model potential, but she apparently doesn’t like movies in general. Who in their right mind doesn’t like movies?!
#4: Bridget Jones “Bridget Jones' Diary” franchise (2001-)
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Look, we know Bridget Jones’s flaws are part of what make her so entertaining, but a lot of the time she is just the worst. She is obsessed with herself, feels dependent on men for validation, is extremely judgmental of everyone around her - despite being a blatant hypocrite, bad at her job, manipulative, ungrateful, spiteful, paranoid, and many other things besides. Bridget Jones is essentially many of our baser behaviors distilled into one person, and while this may make her relatable, it also makes her an awful example to any impressionable viewers out there.
#3: EVERYONE “The Five-Year Engagement” (2012)
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Although primarily focused on Tom Solomon and Violet Barnes, a couple whose prolonged engagement and other factors drive them apart, this film’s supporting cast doesn’t come off great either. Tom upends his life and career for Violet, but becomes unhappy and acrimonious, which causes Violet to cheat on him. Professor Winton’s ethics are also definitely compromised, given that he starts a relationship with his student. Then there’s Tom’s friend Alex, who fires him from his job because he believes Tom can do better, instead of, you know, talking to him about it. This film may be funny, but don’t look to these characters for life advice.
#2: Ben Barry & Andie Anderson “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” (2003)
The romantic leads of the film, Ben Barry is an advertising executive who bets he can make a woman fall in love with him in 10 days, while Andie Anderson is a magazine writer who wants to write the titular article to prove common mistakes women make in relationships. Both of their plans involve manipulating a romantic partner for financial gain, which is thoroughly vile and sociopathic behavior. But it’s “okay” because they “learn their lesson” by the movie’s end. Ugh, these two deserve each other!
#1: Sierra Burgess “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser” (2018)
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A teen rom-com that explores body positivity and female friendships should feature a heroine that you’d want to aspire to be like, right? That’s unfortunately NOT the case with Sierra Burgess. A modernization of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” this movie tells the tale of an unpopular girl who gets texted accidentally by a cute boy, thinking she’s the popular girl instead. But rather than setting him straight – you know, like a normal person – she keeps up the façade and pretends to be said popular girl. Catfishing scam aside, Sierra is also guilty of backstabbing someone she calls her friend, neglecting her friends and family, and pretending to be deaf. Y’know what? We’re renaming this movie: “Sierra Burgess Is a Problematic Character.” Did we miss any obvious poor rom-com role models? Let us know in the comments.
