“Bumblebee” is a new take on the “Transformers” franchise. Finally, one of these films is watchable — and in fact really enjoyable. Hailee Steinfeld takes the lead and the script is written by Christina Hodson, who is becoming one of the go-to studio writers. Hodson spoke to Women and Hollywood about how she pitched a female lead in a traditionally male-dominated franchise and her inspiration for the character of Charlie.

“Bumblebee” opens in theaters December 21.

This interview has been edited. It was transcribed by Antora Majumdar.

W&H: I’d like to hear about how a woman gets into a really male-centric franchise and pitches a girl lead in a movie. Could you talk a little about why you thought this franchise would be a good place for your writing and talents, and how you got it going?

CH: Honestly, when I got the invitation to be in the writers’ room (the studio invited a bunch of writers into a writers room to come up with new ideas for the franchise) to join this I was kind of surprised and thought, “Oh okay, that sounds interesting. I hadn’t thought about it [before then]. Obviously there were more men than women in that room. I went into that room with a clear idea of what I wanted to do and I was like, “I have no idea if they’re going to be interested but this is what I would do if I got to do it,” and I had this idea of doing a story of a girl in her car. I was very much hoping I would be able to make it Bumblebee, but I wasn’t sure if that would be available.

They were super supportive of the idea from when I got into the room. There were all different sorts of voices and different takes in the room and that was just the vision that I had, and the story I wanted to tell. I had a really strong sense of both the central character, Charlie, and her relationship with Bumblebee.

W&H: So you were asked to be part of this brain trust where they were going to come up with different ideas, and one of them was going to come out of the writers’ room. What was the intentionality?

CH: You know, you would have to ask them. I don’t know exactly what they knew, but we all had our own different idea that we were working on. And mine was this one.

I’m super lucky and grateful I pitched it, they loved it. They made “Transformers: The Last Knight,” and then a year later I wrote this script. And it honestly didn’t change much from that initial pitch to that first draft, and there’s a lot that remains in the final movie.

Obviously it’s grown and changed, and the director, Travis Knight, brought a lot of wonderful elements to it and things have shifted. But the core of it, the heart and soul of it, the Charlie-Bumblebee dynamic has remained the same from day one which is rare and exciting.

W&H: Was Bumblebee a character in previous movies?

CH: Yeah, Bumblebee was in all of the previous movies. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are the two of the most beloved of the Autobots — people love those characters.

I always liked Bumblebee because he was the most human to me. He was the most relatable: he’s kind of an underdog. He’s very sweet and very lovable. He was just one of the characters that I most gravitated towards. But I also knew that being one of the most popular characters they may not give me the opportunity to play with him, and they did.

W&H: And then you were coming up with Charlie, what you wanted to see in her, the fact that she was interested in cars, and all those different pieces of the puzzle. Talk a little bit about how you came up with the prototype for her. 

CH: It sounds funny to say about such a big tentpole movie, but Charlie is actually very personal to me because she’s based on my two nieces.

My one niece, Jeanie, is in London. At the time I came up with the idea she was three or four, but very precocious and very talkative. She was really developing a personality and you could tell she wasn’t just a tomboy; she was a tomboy, and she was a girly-girl, and she was a math nerd, and she was artistic. Watching her grow up really made me realize that’s who I was as a kid — I wasn’t one thing or the other, either. 

Female characters in movies are often relegated to a box of being this easily defined, simple thing — of just being “the hot one,” or “the artsy one,” or whatever it is.

I want Jeanie to grow up in a world where the characters on screen are like her. Where they are nuanced and complex, and have these different sides to them. Charlie in the movie is a whole bunch of different things and she’s trying to figure out who she is — that’s part of her coming of age story. So that was one inspiration.

And the other inspiration was my niece Sylvie in New York, who sadly lost her mother to brain cancer this year. Over the course of her mother getting sick, her bond with her father just really became this unbelievably sweet, heartfelt, lovely thing. She inherited his love of cars, and that became their language. She’s taken on his love of music and Sam Cook and that remained in the movie. So really that kind of bond between father and daughter is there. And then just watching Jeanie who is this amazing firecracker of a human.

Those two girls really became my guiding light as I was writing.

W&H: You really are dedicated to creating female characters that we don’t see on screen. Talk a little bit about why that’s so important to you.

CH: It’s just because I felt like there weren’t that many when I was growing up. Certainly there were the odd few, Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in “Terminator 2” was always my favorite. But there weren’t that many strong female characters who were driving the story, who were the ones going on the adventure. They were often just kind of along for the ride, and maybe they turn out to be cool and maybe they don’t, but very rarely did they have their own agency and their own desires, and weren’t just about being saved from a castle or whatever it is.

As a kid growing up I wanted more of that. I wanted more non-white characters. I wanted more female characters. I just wanted more variety, honestly. As a writer, it’s not that it’s a responsibility — it’s just a desire. That’s what I want to see, so that’s what I want to write — a much bigger variety of hero.

Hero shouldn’t just be straight white male, 35, rugged, and cheeky. It should be all sorts of different things, it shouldn’t be so easily defined. I’ve been very, very fortunate that I’ve had these opportunities to write within these big sandboxes and get to create these characters. 

W&H: You are really operating at a level where not a lot of other women are operating — in franchise land, in DC superhero land — it must be daunting in terms of you being “the one.” I’m sure there will be many who come after you. Talk a little bit about what it means to be writing franchise movies that have morphed to be more female-focused.

CH: Definitely historically it’s been very male-dominated — and it still is now. On a lot of these projects, most of the names that are coming up are male. But I’m certainly not the only woman, and I think a big piece of it is about finding support among my friends and my peers. Writers Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet were in the room with me on “Transformers,” and it was always about supporting each other, making sure our voices were heard.

Let’s be fair, the boys in that room were very well-behaved, but anytime a voice was going unnoticed, we made sure that we defended each other and stepped up and corralled each other, and even to this day we all support each other and text each other when we have bad days, or get dumb, misogynistic notes from executives.

I think it is really important that we do foster those relationships, that positive relationship between women in this industry, where often it is perceived as being a competitive situation, when actually we’re trying to make there be more of us.

We would love for there to be more young, female voices coming in, training up, getting the experiences, and getting to write these big movies. I feel very honored to be doing it, and yes it’s daunting, but also it’s a pleasure and privilege.

W&H: You now do some producing as well as writing. Talk a little bit about your transformation into that role.

CH: Honestly, it’s mostly just that I love it. I was a development executive before I was a writer. I’ve always loved working with writers and working with story. I don’t have the bandwidth to write everything and I just want to do more things.

One of the first projects I’m working on is about Barbara Hillary, an 87-year-old retired nurse from Harlem now living in Far Rockaway Queens.I met her this summer. She retired and at the age of 75, having survived cancer twice and having never skied in her life, she decided she was going to be the first African-American woman to go to the North Pole. She just picked up the phone, cold-called people, fundraised the money, and went on the expedition. She was the first African-American woman to do that. And then at the age of 79 she went to the South Pole. As far as we know is one of the oldest humans on record to have done both poles.

She’s just the most inspirational and incredible woman. She’s currently gearing up for her next expedition to Mongolia, so I’m helping her with the fundraising for that. And later down the line there’s a world where there’s a TV show about her younger life — she’s had a fascinating life. There’s also potentially a feature about who she became and what she achieved in her older years.

It’s about finding stories that I’m passionate about that maybe I’m not going to write, but I can give voice to and put a spotlight on, and work with other writers and producers and all sorts of collaborators. I’m naturally a pretty collaborative writer and I love that process, so I just want to do more of it.

W&H: So how did a development executive move into writing?

CH: I moved from New York to LA right after I got married, and I had 90 days where my green card was pending. I wasn’t allowed to work and I wasn’t really meant to go on interviews for jobs.

I sat down and took a risk — I wrote a screenplay, my first. The first person that read it was an agent; I gave it to him on a Thursday and by Monday I was repped at CAA, and I think by the end of the week it was out to producers, the very first draft of the very first thing I wrote.

So I’m very, very fortunate. It was a weird turn of events, but it all happened very quickly.

W&H: Is there any advice you want to offer to other women who want to break into genres and mostly male-centric and white spaces?

CH: I think it’s just about having thick skin, honestly. I also think it’s about perseverance. Just walking with confidence. Often when I do panels and go to festivals women come up to me at the end and they say, “Oh I’d really love to be writing action but I don’t know how to do it.” And I’m like, “Just write it. Do it. Do it with confidence.”

If you love it and that’s what you want to be writing, if you want to be writing those bigger movies, don’t wait for permission. Make that your spec script. Don’t feel like your spec needs to be a small intimate drama. If what you care about is explosions and car chases, write explosions and car chases. Write the thing you’re passionate about.

It’s tough. I’m not going to pretend it’s super easy. But now is a good time to be a female writer in Hollywood: I think doors are starting to open. So come in — come one, come all, join us. We’d love for there to be more of us.