TORONTO -- A year after blowing away audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival with "Room," Brie Larson made a triumphant return to the city this week as an Oscar winner determined to push for more diverse female roles on-screen.
"It's really important to me that we start to see different colours of women in film, we start to see different body shapes ... we see people from different backgrounds," Larson said Friday during an interview for the shootout comedy "Free Fire," which made its world premiere at the fest.
"I think being an artist is a privilege and we need to expand upon what that privilege really is. So for me, I'm stuck in this body that I have but what I want to do with it is at least show that you can be all types of people.
"We're all different kinds of women. We don't have to just be one."
In Ben Wheatley's "Free Fire," Larson plays a strong-willed broker of a guns deal that goes comically awry between two Irishmen and a gang. Co-stars include Cillian Murphy, Michael Smiley, Sharlto Copley and Armie Hammer.
Larson's character is the lone female but takes and delivers just as many hits as the guys. When one of them remarks on her brash nature, she quips: "We can't all be nice girls."
"What I love about that line is that we need more representations of female in film doing things other than these typical roles that we've always seen them play," said Larson, who won an Oscar in February for playing a mother held captive with her son in "Room."
Another future role of hers that subverts the female on-screen stereotype? Captain Marvel.
"I'm a very private person and I'm not interested in making films because I want my face to be plastered on more things," said the Sacramento, Calif., native.
"I'm very choosy about what it is that I do, but what I've found with films like 'Short Term 12' and with 'Room' was that it really spoke to people deeply and it was changing people. That was so powerful and so strong, I went, 'Well this is what I want to dedicate my life to.'
"So when the opportunity came to play (Captain Marvel), this symbol of feminism, to play this empowering role for women and it's on kind of arguably the biggest platform that we have right now, it's undeniable that this is an important step and I want to be a part of it."
"Room" won the People's Choice Award at last year's Toronto film fest and went on to get four Oscar nominations, including one for Canadian writer Emma Donoghue, who penned the novel that inspired the film.
Larson said she still keeps in touch with her nine-year-old Canadian "Room" co-star Jacob Tremblay via email. ("He dictates to his dad and his dad writes to me.")
Her other upcoming projects include the comedy "Unicorn Store," in which she'll star and also make her feature directorial debut.
Stepping into the director's chair is, in part, a way for her to take charge of the gender issue plaguing Hollywood, she said.
"I find it really thrilling and I think we need more female voices in general," said Larson, who has previously written and directed two short films.
"So everything fell together and now I'm doing it and now I'm excited. I'm excited to have that opportunity."
