Rosie Perez on female-led 'Birds of Prey': 'I hope it continues'

Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Rosie Perez hopes to work on more female-led films like her new movie, Birds of Prey.

The 55-year-old actress appeared on Tuesday's episode of Good Morning America, where she discussed the film with her co-stars Margot Robbie, Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Ella Jay Basco.

Birds of Prey is written by Christina Hodson, directed by Cathy Yan and produced by Robbie, Sue Kroll and Bryan Unkeless. The film's cast also includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Perez, who plays Renee Montoya in the movie, said being part of the first all-female superhero ensemble film, which also had a female-led creative team, was a special experience.

"I've had the privilege in over 30 years in this business to work with female directors and producers, but never on this magnitude, never on a studio level, big budget film," Perez said. "I hope it continues."

Birds of Prey follows the DC Comics character Harley Quinn (Robbie) as she attempts to save a young girl, Cassandra Cain (Basco), with the help of Montoya (Perez), Black Canary (Smollett-Bell) and Huntress (Winstead). Smollett-Bell said the cast trained for "over five months" to perform the stunts in the film.

"[We] felt incredibly powerful and strong, but it kicked our butts," she said.

Robbie previously told Glamour U.K. that pitching Birds of Prey was an "uphill battle." Robbie, who played Harley Quinn in the 2016 movie Suicide Squad, recalled how she approached Warner Bros. with her female-led concept for a sequel.

"I pitched it with a deck I made," she said. "It was pretty thick. It had comps of other female ensemble action films that had done well and ones that didn't do well and my theory as to why and what we could do. But really, I was just saying we need to do a female ensemble action film. I don't know why there aren't more of them."

Birds of Prey opens in theaters Friday.