Eponine Appearances
While Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables has been adapted onto television and film dozens of times, this usually means they're adapting the book, not the broadway musical. This is noteworthy for Eponine, because she's a far less sympathetic character in the novel. This means that most live-action depictions of the character aren't really representative of the spunky, likeably tragic character from the play who shows up in GND. Because of this, we need to mostly focus on the musical if we want to look at possible representations of our Eponine.
Frances Ruffelle originated the part on Broadway, and in the original London production.
The second Eponine was actually former American teen-pop sensation Deborah (debbie) Gibson.
Lea Salonga took over the roll in 1993, and also played Eponine in the 10th anniversary concert. A Filipina singer, Lea is credited for opening up the part to people of color, leading to a much broader history of POC being cast as Eponine.
Just as an aside, while Eponine is often written out of film or TV adaptations of the novel, she has appeared occasionally but is usually unrecognizeable to fans of the character from the musical. ne of the best examples of this is in the 2000 TV miniseries, where she's played by horror mainstay Asia Argento.
Samantha Barks, veteran of the stage that played Eponine in both the 2010 West End Production and 25th Anniversary Concert, won the role in the 2012 film version of the musical, beating out several pop starlets that were vieing for the roll.