Lizzy Caplan pushed back on playing a female stereotype in “Now You See Me 2”

There have been so many fantastic headlines about women truly demanding the credit they deserve — and you can add Lizzy Caplan to the list of women who refuse to settle. We know Lizzy from a bunch of great roles, ranging from Janice Ian in 2004’s Mean Girls, to Party Down‘s wonderfully sarcastic Casey Klein, to Virginia Johnson in TV’s Master of Sex. And of course, she’s one of Nick Miller’s most memorable ex-girlfriends from New Girl. And soon, you’ll see her in Now You See Me 2, which will be out in theaters this Friday. Like many of her roles, Caplan isn’t playing a stereotypical female trope.

The film is about magicians, and Caplan plays Lula, one of the few female roles among a predominantly male cast that includes Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, and Woody Harrelson. One thing that drew Caplan to the role is the fact that she was able to improvise some of the lines, and truly make it hers.

“I have to say, and this isn’t even a straight up comedy—there’s other stuff going on—but they gave me so much free reign to improvise and make the character as strange and odd as I wanted, and not the 2-dimensional token female role,” Caplan said to People. Caplan will be an essential member of the team, fighting against a tech module that is trying to damage the reputation of the crew — and being able to add her own flair to her character helps make her shine even brighter. Caplan admitted that out the comedies she’s done, this movie was the one that gave her the most freedom on set.

Caplan’s character definitely adds girl power to the film. “There are a few lines in the movie that I improvised, and they are all about, ‘why do you think a girl can’t do it?’ And that was just really how I was feeling in the moment,” she said. “But they incorporated it into the character, which is fantastic.” She also noted that the film was definitely collaborative, which is amazing — after all, more creative voices make for a stronger film.

Kudos to the team behind Now You See Me 2, who aren’t afraid to let women speak up and take some control on set, and many props to Caplan, for making sure she’s able to add a bit more substance to her movie roles.