Slideshow: Women Celebs at Fan Expo Chicago 2024 Thru the Lens and POV of Photog Joe Arce

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Ella Purnell

CHICAGO – I was doing Portrait photography on the last day of the Chicago Fan Expo (August 18th, 2024), and even in these highly political partisan times – where one person’s hero is another’s villain – each of those five woman photographed and featured should be recognized for never being afraid to speak out and fight for their causes. I couldn’t think of a better way to commemorate the exact 104th anniversary of the passage of the right-to-vote 19th Amendment during Fan Expo Chicago.

I’m honored to present the “Five” in Exclusive Portraits and essays below.

Elizabeth Berkley

In her two most famous on-screen roles, Elizabeth Berkley famously portrayed Jessie Spano on “Saved by the Bell” – she was the Bayside High feminist who was always trying to inspire the others to fight for female inclusion and equality. As a lifelong dancer and star of “Showgirls,” Berkley was well aware of the issues of body positivity and the negative effects of bullying that she herself had received in the aftermath of her highly controversial film. 

In response to the the thousands of fan letters she regularly received from teen girls asking for all kinds of advice, she launched girls-only self esteem workshop days in various schools. The “Ask Elizabeth” program ran for over five years. She followed it up by writing a a New York Times Best Seller “Ask Elizabeth” – based upon those years of workshops – as a mentoring guide for millions of young girls.

Laurie Metcalf

While beloved by millions as Jackie Harris – Roseanne’s awkward and underachieving sister on “Roseanne” and its current spinoff, “The Connors” – Laurie Metcalf has won four Primetime Emmys, two Tonys for her stage work and an Academy Award Nomination for “Lady Bird” (2017).

One of the founding members of Chicago’s illustrious Steppenwolf Theater, while off stage Metcalf self describes herself as a painfully shy workaholic, but still finds time as the national spokesperson and ambassador for “Plan International USA,” the global development and humanitarian nonprofit, that partners with girls and their local communities to fight for female rights and to end gender inequality. 

Morena Baccarin

Whether you know her as Vanessa Carlysle from the “Deadpool” franchise or her Emmy nominated role in “Homeland,” Morena Baccarin, like her mother before her, takes her sense of justice just as seriously as her acting roles. 

Born in Rio de Janeiro to an actress mom and a journalist father, her family relocated to New York City when she was ten-years old. Baccarin never left behind her love of her native Brazil nor her mothers advocacy fighting for woman’s rights in her native country. As an Ambassador for the International Rescue Committee on Behalf of Refugees, she penned an op-ed for Newsweek in January of 2019 warning of a looming crisis … more than five million Venezuelans were facing displacement. Baccarin interviewed the refugees on camera in Columbia – while many were heading north – and helped push for a bipartisan congressional bill to grant Emergency Protected Status (EPS) for Venezuelans already in the U.S.
Ella Purnell

If fighting off irradiated mutants in a post nuclear apocalyptic world for Prime Video’s “Fallout” or struggling to survive a remote plane crash by being forced to cannibalize your fellow female soccer teammates in Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” wasn’t enough, British beauty Ella Purnell has championed the real life struggles of young people offscreen as well. 

As the spokesperson and ambassador for “YoungMinds.org” since 2019, the 27 year-old former child actor turned streaming series leading lady is a fearless advocate for young people’s mental health programs. Purnell has openly both discussed and written op-ed articles sharing her own teen struggles with depression, anxiety and self harm. Her piece “A Letter to my Younger Self: The Night Before Results Day” went viral in 2018 for its tips and advice for helping college students mentally cope during exams. The UK-based mental health charity organization Purnell works for fights to de-stigmatize the need to seek help and offers both 24/7 hotline help and access to impatient treatment for English youth.

Gina Carano

From being the first female Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) champion to an award winning action star in films like “Haywire”, “Fast and Furious 6” and “Deadpool,” right wing conservative firebrand Gina Carano has never backed down from a fight. With a long “herstory” of mentorship and coaching female athletes … especially young fellow mixed martial arts fighters … Carano was celebrated as both the ultimate fitness role model and cinematic sex symbol on the rise.

Fired from Disney Studios Star Wars series “The Mandalorian” after two seasons for insensitive online comments, she became a polarizing political lightning rod. While many claimed her “anti-woke” trolling crossed the line into hate speech, her legions of conservative fans championed her a warrior and defender of First Amendment free speech rights. Following her termination from Disney she was immediately hired for a staring role as the new action hero for the Daily Wire’s film division. She currently has several projects in development there, and has sued Disney Studios for “Discriminatory Termination,” with financial backing from Elon Musk … her battle rages on. 

Click “Next” and “Previous” to scan through the slideshow or jump directly to individual photos with the captioned links below. All photos © Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com.

1. 24FANEXPO1: Elizabeth Berkley
2. 24FANEXPO2: Laurie Metcalf
3. 24FANEXPO3: Morena Baccarin
4. 24FANEXPO3: Ella Purnell
5. 24FANEXPO4: Gina Carano

Photography and Article by: Joe Arce
Published by: Patrick McDonald, Site Editor, HollywoodChicago.com