Jordana Brewster said that she stood up for herself to get more action scenes in F9. Her first introduction in the role of Mia Torretto was in the first entry of the franchise, The Fast and the Furious, released in 2001. She starred alongside Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and Michelle Rodriguez in the successful series. Brewster returned to the role in the fourth installment titled Fast & Furious, continuing into Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, and now F9.
Brewster previously stated that she was not very happy with the fourth film since she had a smaller role where she could not be included in the action. She expressed being more pleased with Fast Five and F9, given that she was given more to do outside of heavy dialogue scenes with the male characters. Since there has been some talk about a potential female-led Fast & Furious spin-off, Brewster may have more of an opportunity to get involved with big action set pieces in the future.
In an interview with THR, Brewster talked about her experience filming the newest installment of the action franchise. Since she has been craving to get more involved in the action scenes, she took the chance and campaigned for herself. She had starred in the television series Magnum P.I., which was produced by Justin Lin. That opportunity certainly helped her in this case. See below for her full comment:
“I’ve heard throughout my career that if you want something done, show you can do it. That’s something that is very difficult for me to do. To advocate for myself and be like, ‘I can do it! I’m funny. Look at this.’ And ‘Oh, I can be an action star.’ With Justin it’s much easier. I think this is my fifth film with him. We started on Annapolis so we’ve got this shorthand. Funnily enough, I was guest-starring on his show Magnum and I was like, ‘Wait a second, I’m toting a gun on this. I’m participating in the action. I might as well start texting this dude and show him that Mia can also kick some ass in the next Fast.’ It paid off. I’m really glad I did it.”
![How F9’s Jordana Brewster Fought For More Action Scenes](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/fast-9-jordana-brewster.jpg)
With the inclusion of more female stars, the series has clearly been trying to address the criticisms it has received regarding inclusion. Eva Mendes, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, and Nathalie Emmanuel have all been added to the franchise, alongside Brewster and Rodriguez. The pursuit of more female characters is welcome, especially when including such big names that have fit into the franchise with ease.
While it is great that Brewster managed to get more action scenes in F9, this issue is larger than the Fast & Furious franchise. This is an industry-wide issue that women need to fight harder to get the same opportunities that men do, especially when it comes to the action genre. Previous female-led spin-offs, including Ghostbusters, got a lot of hate that went past whether people enjoyed the film or not. If a female-centric Fast & Furious ever comes to be, hopefully it gets a fair opportunity to be embraced in the same way that this franchise has been for the last 20 years.