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Patience Phillips/Catwoman
Patience Phillips
Played by: Halle Berry (film), Jennifer Hale (video game)
A fashion designer who becomes a Catwoman.
- Adaptational Heroism: Much more unambiguously heroic and nicer than her comic book counterpart.
- Adaptational Skimpiness: Her outfit is considerably more revealing than its comic counterpart normally is.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: This version of the character fits Type I of this trope ("Animal Abilities"), unlike her Type II ("Animal Alias") comic counterpart.
- Anti-Hero: She's a hero, but has no qualms with roughing up her targets.
- Back from the Dead: How Patience becomes Catwoman.
- Cat Girl: Catwoman, of course, wears a cat-themed costume.
- Cats Hate Water: Patience does not like rain.
- Classy Cat-Burglar: It's Catwoman. What did you expect?
- Dark Is Not Evil: She wears black leather and was resurrected by cat necromancy, but she is a good person. The final fight scene contrasts her with the white-wearing Laurel, clearly invoking this trope.
- Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Wears a very Stripperific dominatrix outfit, complete with a Whip of Dominance.
- Drink-Based Characterization: Catwoman orders a White Russian without ice, vodka, or Kahlua. The bartender gives her a glass of cream. Did we mention that Catwoman is basically a cat?
- Expository Hairstyle Change: After Patience becomes Catwoman, she cuts off her long lovely curls in exchange for a short, spiky hairdo.
- Extreme Doormat: Patience was this before becoming Catwoman.
- Hurricane of Puns: She uses a lot of feline-related puns.
- Kick Chick: Besides her whip, her preferred method of fighting is with kicks.
- Ms. Fanservice: Catwoman was this in the comics already, but it's taken to ridiculous levels in this movie with her Stripperific ensemble and the camera focusing on her boobs and ass many times.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Happens repeatedly to Patience after she is brought back to life. As to be expected, it freaks her out at first.
- Nice Girl: Anti-heroic tendencies aside, Patience is generally sweet and affable.
- Pungeon Master: "Did you boys really think you could just walk in here and steal all of these beautiful things? What a purrrfect idea."
Yes, that's an actual line in the script. - Sexy Cat Person: Apparently intended, although many people thought the costume was too over-the-top to actually achieve it.
- The Tease: Tends to flirt with her enemies to catch them off guard.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: States that she is "definitely not a killer".
- Whip of Dominance: After Patience adopts the Catwoman identity, she started wields a whip as her primary weapon, which combined with her Stripperiffic black leather costume gives her heavy dominatrix vibes, supposedly to illustrate how she embraced her new bold and sexually confident personality.
George Hedare
George Hedare
Played by: Lambert Wilson (film), Dee Bradley Baker (video game)
The CEO of Hedare Beauty.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: CEO of a makeup company that designs addictive makeup that will cause a person's face to atrophy and ultimately prove fatal if not continually applied.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He is seen as the main antagonist until the second half.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When he learns the full extent of the damage his makeup can produce, he's reluctant to mass-produce it but Laurel insists on doing so.
- Expy: Of Max Shreck in Batman Returns, being a Corrupt Corporate Executive who is responsible for his dowdy employee's transformation into Catwoman.
Laurel Hedare
Laurel Hedare
Played by: Sharon Stone
The wife of George Hedare and an associate of his within his company. She has her own plans with the company's products.
- Arch-Enemy: Of Patience Phillips.
- Big Bad: Of the film and video game.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Occupies a high-ranking role in the Hedare makeup company and ultimately takes her husband's place as CEO after killing him.
- Cosmetic Horror: The cosmetic product produced by Catwoman's enemy Laurel is physically damaging and addictive.
- Evil Counterpart: To Patience Phillips herself, being a woman in a male-dominated environment who is overlooked but acquires incredible powers and strength. She also possesses confidence and sensuality right from the start which Patience only develops after becoming Catwoman. Also while Patience is a Shrinking Violet living in a small flat, Laurel is a narcissist who already possesses wealth, fame and power but feels as though she's drawn the short straw because she's being replaced as the company's top model, which while definitely unfair, doesn't justify her actions. Their similarities are symbolised by the fact that they possess the same hairstyle.
- Game Over: She says this word-for-word to Patience.
- Gender Flip: Oddly enough, the closest thing in the film to any DC Comics plot element is the resemblance between Laurel's arc and the original Batman comics origin story for Black Mask, the male C-list Batman villain who became comics Catwoman's personal Arch-Enemy during her 2000s solo series. The concept of a literally-addictive beauty product bears a resemblance to the origin story of Clayface from Batman: TAS.
- Lady Macbeth: Is even more ruthless than her husband and ultimately kills him so that she can take the reigns of power altogether. Mass-marketing Beau-line is also her idea.
- Light Is Not Good: She is evil, has platinum blonde hair and wears white clothes. Given that she's contrasted against the Dark Is Not Evil Catwoman, this was intentional.
- Made of Iron: Extended use of Beau-line over the years has not only preserved her youth but made her virtually indestructible.
- Narcissist: Obsessed with her appearance, youth, beauty and power.
- Pride Before a Fall: A literal version in her case. As she hangs onto an iron poll protruding from the window of her office, she sees a reflection of her damaged face and is momentarily too horror struck to move, giving time for the iron rod to snap, sending her plummeting to her death.
- The Sociopath: Not only manages to play the public roll of a loving wife and convince Patience that she's her ally, she also intends to mass market a highly dangerous and addictive makeup product purely for profit.
- Stealth Pun: Sharon Stone playing a woman whose skin is like marble due to a side affect of the skin cream she markets.
- Villain Respect: In her first scene with Patience, she's looking out of the window of her husband's office as he castigates Patience. She comes to her defense saying "She's good and you know it". This never goes anywhere however and is subverted in the final scene when she has Catwoman cornered and mockingly says "You're nothing more than a frightened little girl playing dress-up."
- White Hair, Black Heart: Laurel is platinum blonde and evil as they come.
Ophelia Powers
Ophelia Powers
Played by: Frances Conroy
Patience's mentor.
- Crazy Cat Lady: She is obsessed with cats and has some... unorthodox hypotheses about ancient catwomen.
- Straw Feminist: Possibly unintentional on the part of the filmmakers, but she claims her fall from grace is due to "male academia" rather than the outlandish nature of her theories about immortal cat people.
Tom Lone
Tom Lone
Played by: Benjamin Bratt
- Expy: He is inspired by Batman.
- Fair Cop: He is an honest cop.
- Satellite Love Interest: What else do we know about him other than he's in love with Patience? He's a cop. Although even that may not be saying much...
Sally
Sally
Played by: Alex Borstein
One of Patience's few friends.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Tom Lone slips a strawberry into her mouth at the end of the film: "Mmm, delicious, thank you... And the strawberry's nice too."
- Big Beautiful Woman: She's a big girl and ends up with Patience's Love Interest.
- Deadpan Snarker: With her genuinely witty one-liners, ("Have you noticed how when they take you for observation, they never actually observe you") she's considered one of the few good things about the movie.
