Rosario Dawson proud to play a Wonder Woman for daughter's generation

NEW YORK, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Rosario Dawson said she is grateful to be part of a genre of entertainment -- comic-book adaptations -- that keeps increasing in quality and diversity.

The 40-year-old Sin City and Jessica Jones actress has voiced the character of Wonder Woman in the DC Animated Movie Universe's Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, Justice League: Teen Titans, Justice League Dark and Death of Superman. But Wonder Woman: Bloodlines is her first stand-alone adventure as the titular superheroine. It will be available on DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday.

"It's mostly female-centered. A lot of female characters on the good side and the bad side are getting explored and getting their due," Dawson recently told reporters at New York Comic Con.

"I've been doing her voice now for a few years in some of the other major storylines of the other characters and this is the first one [starring Wonder Woman]. I held out all these years to get her story out there again in a big way. So, it's really fun."

Bloodlines follows Diana (Dawson) as she rescues the injured U.S. Air Force Capt. Steve Trevor (Jeffrey Donovan), who stumbles onto her magical, woman-populated island of Themyscira.

Defying her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Cree Summer), by helping Steve, Diana returns with him to the human world where her extraordinary strength, speed and capacity to help others earn her the title Wonder Woman, as well as a few enemies, including Dr. Poison (Courtenay Taylor), Giganta (Kimberly Brooks) and Silver Swan (Maria Avgeropoulos.)

"It's that iconic story -- Themyscira, Steve, leaving and going to America," Dawson said.

"A lot of what Wonder Woman has to deal with in this film is the reality of what her mere presence creates. Even with the best intentions, conflict and confrontation are created, and how do you deal with that and your own complicity in the negative situations around you? Those are the kinds of nuances and complexities we are allowed to explore now."

Diana's relationship with Hyppolyta was probably the most fascinating to Dawson.

"That's that first female relationship we have in our lives and it can be so contentious," she said of the mother-daughter bond. "It's such a mark of evolution -- like we've grown up, that we can break that umbilical cord and move on."

Raised in real life by a mother and grandmother who were huge Wonder Woman fans, the actress is thrilled to now share the family's love for the character and the world she inhabits with her own teenage daughter, "but in a way that is really appropriate for her generation and with the messaging that she really needs to hear."

"To see how these iconic stories have been adapted from generation to generation and evolved is really critical and powerful," she added.

With the explosion of storytelling platforms, Dawson is seeing more opportunities for women in front of and behind the camera, but the numbers still are "dismal and abysmal" compared to the projects available for men.

"We've still got a very long way to go, and obviously I hope that this film is successful and reaches out there and helps change hearts and minds for the greater good," she said. "But I don't think it's any one project's job to have to do that. I think it's all of us as a culture that needs to evolve. We're seeing that -- bigger and bigger -- that demand is there."

Dawson's collaboration with comic-book titan Edgardo-Miranda Rodriguez on the La Borinquena superheroine anthology series has shown her that comics can do more than entertain and inspire; they can be used to educate and collect money for worthy causes.

"Wonder Woman is in the comic with (La Borinquena) and we are using that to raise funds for Puerto Rico for reconstruction," the actress said.

"There is not just power and inspiration in the pages. It's actually, literally affecting positive change on the ground for people who really need it. I love this world. I love this community. I'm grateful for it. I think it's not nearly been tapped for the resource and the power for good that it really is."