Suzu! Suzu!

In Miss Bala, Gina Rodriguez plays Gloria, who is doing everything to search and save her friend Suzu (played by Cristina Rodlo) after a night club ambush.

The film also stars Ismael Cruz Cordova and Anthony Mackie. It is directed by Catherine Hardwicke.

In a telephone interview, LRM Online spoke with Cristina Rodlo about her role, acting alongside Gina Rodriguez and the differences between this action remake and the original Mexican drama.

Rodlo is a rising Latina star. She has been in numerous Mexican television series like Vuelve Temprano, 2091 and El Vato. She has made adjustments into Hollywood with the upcoming television series Amazon’s Too Old to Die Young from Nicolas Winding Refn and joined the upcoming season of AMC’s The Terror.

Miss Baja is currently playing nationwide in theaters today.

Read our exclusive interview below.

LRM: I’ve checked out your film Miss Bala and all I could hear in my head right now is a Gina [Rodriguez] yelling Suzu throughout the entire movie.

Cristina Rodlo: [Laughs]

LRM: What initially attracted you to this?

Cristina Rodlo: Did you like it?

LRM: I did. It was just funny that [yell] kept on resonating in my head. Suzu! Suzu! [Laughs] So what initially attracted you to a project like this?

Cristina Rodlo: The first thing is that it’s a Hollywood movie made with pretty much the whole cast being Latino. That’s been the main thing that attracted to me. I saw the original one and I loved the original one. Of course, I want to be part of the remake of Miss Bala. With Catherine Hardwicke directing the movie, it was like my dream come true. Everything was in place. I was like, “Yeah! Let’s do this film for sure.”

LRM: How were you brought on to the project? Did you audition for the part of Suzu?

Cristina Rodlo: I had auditioned for the part.

LRM: Excellent.

Cristina Rodlo: I auditioned myself. I got a call back while actually shooting the show. I called back in Mexico. So I went back to Mexico and do the callback with Catherine. After that I booked it.

LRM: You mentioned you watched the original movie, which is nothing like this Miss Bala. What did you like about the original movie compared to this movie?

Cristina RodloThey are completely different movies. When we started doing this film–tt was a thing that we used to say that it shouldn’t be a remake, but it should be based on the original one. It is a completely different thing. What I liked about the original one is that rough. I could feel myself being the character of Stephanie Sigman being there. I’m Mexican and I know how that works. This feels so real. It feels so good. I thought that the actors were great. It’s a hit with is the director [Gerardo Naranjo]. He did an amazing job, because I was like completely blown away by it. I think there’s no way we can compare it with the new Miss Bala. This one is an action film. It’s more about the heroine. There are two different stories.

LRM: Were you happier to be in an action film that’s actually that didn’t rely on the pageant side of the story similar the original movie or the real news story about Miss Bala?

Cristina Rodlo: I was happy to be in a project in general. If I was on the original Miss Bala, I would be happy as well. Now being in the new Miss Bala, I’m still happy. As I say, they are two different films. I think we shouldn’t compare them. This movie talks about a different thing. This is movie talks about family and what a person can become to save their family. It’s about as superhero without superpowers. Gloria’s superpower is that she’s human. She fought for Suzu and she’s going to do whatever it takes to save her.

LRM: Were you kind of jealous that Gina had more pageant scenes and your character did?

Cristina Rodlo Laughs] No. I was not jealous. Of course, she’s going to have more scenes. It’s great! I was just happy and excited to be part of this movie. I was happy to be sharing this with Gina. She’s amazing. She’s an amazing human being and she’s an amazing actress. To learn from her and from Catherine, it was a pleasure.

LRM: What was the funnest thing about working alongside Gina for this entire project?

Cristina Rodlo: It’s everything. She’s always in a good mood. She is always making jokes. She’s always happy and saying great things about others. She’s always being there for you. Every time I was on set, I was happy. It was exciting to be on set and the sharing the scenes with her. It’s about laughing with her about probably the dumbest things that are happening. It was fun. She’s a really good person to work with.

LRM: What do you like about playing Suzu for yourself?

Cristina Rodlo: I liked how it shows the hard work of a person. She’s doing whatever she can to give the best to her brother. She also has a dream. She wants to become something. She’s a dreamer. She thinks that the way to become something–it’s going to be through the pageant. It’s going to give her away to college where she can study. And for her brother can study. That’s what I like about her. She’s a dreamer and she’s a fighter. She is going to do whatever for her brother and become someone. She has all these dreams for herself. She’s not depressed. She’s happy, She’s excited even though she had a hard time. She doesn’t have a family [besides her brother] and parents died.

LRM: Let me start to wrap this up with you, Cristina. Could you talk about your future projects? Do you want to work more in Mexico or here in the United States?

Cristina Rodlo: I want to work more in the United States. I’m actually premiering show for Amazon probably in June with Nicolas Winding Refn called Too Old to Die Young. Right now, I’m in Vancouver shooting another show for AMC’s The Terror and that will be coming in around August or September of this year. I’m actually working more in the US, which is great. Hopefully, I can work more after Miss Bala.

LRM: Excellent. Hey, thank you very much for this conversation. I really appreciate it. I still can’t get Suzu out of my head.

Cristina Rodlo:[Laughs] Thank you so much. Thank you for your time.