I’m going to come clean: I really love the movie The Firm. I loved the book by John Grisham before the movie was released, and I thought the movie was a great book-to-screen adaptation. As with all adaptations, changes were made, so worse than others, but one thing I think the movie nailed was the casting.
This is especially true for Gene Hackman in the role of Avery Toler, the grizzled partner at the shady law firm that Mitch (Tom Cruise) goes to work for in Memphis. However, I recently learned that the original idea for that character was to switch the unsavory attorney’s gender and cast Meryl Streep in the role. I love Streep as much as anyone, but I’m glad that decision was amended.
I’m Sure Meryl Streep Could Have Been Amazing, But…
This is not going to be an article discrediting the great Meryl Streep. No one is that insane, as she’s a national treasure for good reason. I’m sure she would have been incredible in a re-written role, but Avery Toler is a philandering lawyer with a weak sense of morality. This is not to say that a female character couldn’t have the same dubious morality, but it would have changed everything about the story, and more specifically, the discussion around the movie. Instead of being a simple legal thriller, the cultural conversation would have been all about a female character with “male characteristics.” Remember, this was in 1993. That conversation could be normal in 2025, but over 30 years ago? I doubt it.
Just a year after The Firm came out, another book adaptation, Disclosure, was released (and was a bigger hit than people remember). The movie portrays a female CEO played by Demi Moore who sexually harasses a male employee played by Michael Douglas. The purpose of that movie (and the book) was to swap what were thought of a traditional gender roles and morals in society at the time. Had The Firm done a gender swap on the Toler character, that’s what people would have been talking about. The world, quite honestly, wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet.
I love that The Firm is a straightforward story that isn’t trying to be political or culturally groundbreaking. Not that there is anything wrong with either, because art in all its forms should push the cultural narrative, but not every movie or book has to make a statement. Swapping the role from man to woman would have absolutely opened up that conversation and allowed it to dominate. We got that conversation with Disclosure, and I’m happy we didn’t with The Firm.
Besides, Hackman Was Fantastic
The late Gene Hackman was wonderful in basically everything he did. For me, he’s on the Mount Rushmore of American actors. So is Streep, of course, but it’s not like Hackman was bad in The Firm. No, he was awesome in the movie. He was perfect as the slimiest among the attorneys at a firm full of sketchy lawyers. He plays the role with such believability that you are charmed and disgusted at the same time.
I’m not sure a female character would have had the same effect on me, especially at the time. Like most people back then, I’d be asking how believable it was that a woman could get seduced and distracted by someone like Toler was by Mitch’s wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn), and that wouldn’t be fair to the movie, the book, or audiences in 1993.
And hey, if they were to remake The Firm (again) in the 2020s? Go for it, I’d be all in. Meanwhile, you can watch the original The Firm with a Paramount+ subscription and decide for yourself how different it would be.