Could There Be A Miss Bala Sequel? Director Catherine Hardwicke Is In

Catherine Hardwicke knows firsthand what it’s like to be in an unexpectedly dangerous situation. The director recently shared an anecdote about being car-jacked in Los Angeles, an experience that forced her to really tap into a place of strength she didn’t know she had.

“I just looked right at the gun. I was just shocked, and I go, 'Fuck off.' she told CinemaBlend. “I don't know why I said that, right to the loaded gun. It startled the guy so much that he sort of dropped his guard for one second, and then I just started walking. And, of course, the cop told me that is not the thing to do. Do not do that; give them the fricking car. I had a junker car anyway! But I didn't think that way. I was just defiant.”

It’s that same kind of energy that Hardwicke sought to bring in Miss Bala, a reimagining of the 2011 Mexican film by the same name starring Gina Rodriguez as an L.A. makeup artist who finds herself caught in the middle of a cartel drug war. In a phone interview, Hardwicke told Refinery29 that she hopes women ask themselves some hard questions as they’re watching the film.

“‘How could I survive if something like this happened to me?” she said. “If I'm thrust in the middle of a gun fight or something, how do you stay strong, cool? How do you keep your dignity?” ‘You might have to dig in and find parts of yourself that you never expected to find. We all have it inside.”

Hardwicke has made a career depicting the darker sides of women on screen. It hasn’t always been easy: Despite critical acclaim for her feature debut, Thirteen, and the record-shattering box office success of the first Twilight film, she, like many women directors, has faced some career hurdles. Miss Bala is her first feature film since 2015, and Hardwicke is well-aware of the stakes — especially for a movie directed by a woman starring a Latinx female-lead.

Ahead, she explains why she feels this version of Miss Bala speaks to our current climate, why she wasn’t surprised at the lack of female directing nominees at the Oscars, and how there could be more gun-wielding Gina Rodriguez in our future.

Catherine Hardwicke: “The lead character in the original was very, very passive. She really let the men just do everything to her and didn't really fight back. The new writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer — he is from Queretaro, Mexico — he really brought a lot of new layers to it. In the last 10 years, there's been so many other stories very similar to [the one] the original is based on. [So,] he made the two characters be from both sides of the border. They lived in the U.S. and in Mexico. They were struggling with their identity, which is something that a lot of people are faced with. In some ways, that's how a woman director could feel that too in this climate, in this industry.”

“We have five major scenes that we filmed right next to the border in Tijuana — in the background of numerous scenes, you see the metal slats, the wall that we've all been hearing about. Even just the energy filming right there at the real border felt very real and naturally right. I grew up on the Mexican border of Texas in McAllen. Our farm was on the river, the Rio Grande, and I swam across and entered Mexico. So illegal, entering into a foreign country, and then would swim back many times, growing up. I love the culture in Mexico. It's so rich, the art, the architecture, the history, the food, everything. I just wanted to be able to celebrate that, not just showing the dusty stucco Mexico, but some of the new cool architecture, the new feeling, the energy that you have in border towns.”

I was a fan from Jane the Virgin, which is a very different character, but when I met her in person, I was like ‘Oh my God.’ This woman is super strong! She's legendarily from a boxing family — she's tough, but she [also] has that inner strength to be able to do all the things that she does as a human being, like directing, and really trying to help reach out to other Latinx members of the community and galvanize, becoming a force for change.

“I thought it would be so cool to see her having to go into this kind of double role that she has to play. The stakes keep raising on her, and she somehow has to keep her cool, keep focused and figure out a solution. I knew Gina could do it because she's got all those layers inside. Her face is so expressive. That was my challenge: To be sure I film her with the right kind of lens and the right compositions so that we feel close to her and what she's thinking. I call it epic intimacy.”

“I want to applaud and celebrate Sony for having a Latino lead in an action movie. That's really cool and rare, and having myself directing an action movie, and the editor's an African-American woman,Teri Shropshire. That's also cool, because sometimes the studios are like, ‘Oh well, if a woman's directing action, then we better have a man cutting and editing the action.’ They embraced it, celebrated it. That was exciting. That's positive, and I think Sony has a few other cool big movies coming out with female directors, so every studio that is really embracing this, we just love it, and got to applaud it. And the ones that aren't, it's time to get on the bandwagon people. Get on the right side of history. Get ahead of the game.’”

“Of course, we look at the awards and we go, ‘Okay. None of the best pictures are directed by women, none of the Oscar directing nominations are female.’ Where is that leaky pipeline all the way through? Women's movies weren't supported, and they didn't have as big of cast, as big of budget, as big of marketing push. There are so many levels that we need to change and do better from the ground up from the initial project. Like, if there's a wonderful best selling novel that's written by a woman, with a woman in the lead, why shouldn't a woman direct it?

That's not always the case. Let's get out of that mentality and give more women a chance.”

“I know, but it wasn't a shocker because I hadn’t been invited to [awards season promotion] dinner parties for female-directed movies like I had for the male-directed movies. The money was not pouring in that direction. Of course, the movies have to be great, and deserving and everything.

But there were so many great ones this year.”

“We wanted you to feel really satisfied. She's learned a lot. She's found a lot about herself in this movie, through this journey. This could be the end, but of course, I would love to see, ‘Gee. Okay. What is Miss Bala gonna do now that she knows that she has this kind of strength, courage, under fire? What is she going to do with that knowledge? Is she going to go ahead and get trained and do some rad stuff?’ Can you imagine a Latina Jason Bourne? That would be awesome! We want people to get out there and support it, so we'll get to make more.”

“Oh my God. Because we as directors need to be able to walk into room to the next video and say, ‘Look, we only spent this much money, and we made this much on the movie.’ Female-led movies are going to make money. Take the risk. We need the ammo to keep going. We need to have our fun opening weekend. I know it’s Super Bowl weekend, but there's plenty of time. You can still watch the game, and still go see the movie or skip the game and go see the movie twice!”