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Michelle Rodriguez (born Mayte Michelle
Rodriguez on July 12, 1978 in San Antonio, Texas) is an
American actress, best-known for her roles in the
television series Lost and movies The Fast and the
Furious, S.W.A.T., and Resident Evil.
Early life: Rodriguez was born to Walter Rodríguez
(who is Puerto Rican) and Carmen Milady Pared (of the
Dominican Republic), and has a total of ten
half-siblings or siblings. She was raised by her
devoutly religious maternal grandmother.
Rodríguez moved to the Dominican Republic with her
mother when she was 8 and lived in Puerto Rico when she
was 11, later settling in New Jersey. She dropped out of
high school at age 17 and later earned her GED.
Career: Rodríguez was a struggling actress when
she ran across an ad advertising an open casting call
for the low-budget, independent film, Girlfight (2000).
Although it was her first audition, she beat out 350
other applicants for the part, and was cast in the
starring role of Diana Guzman, a troubled teen who
decides to channel her aggression by training to become
a boxer. Rodríguez's performance was recognized by both
critics and audiences.
Subsequently, she has had notable roles in other
successful movies, including S.W.A.T., The Fast and the
Furious and Resident Evil. In 2002, she was ranked #77
in Stuff magazine’s “102 Sexiest Women In The
World”, and #34 in Maxim’s "100 Sexiest
Women". 2002 also saw Michelle play Eden in the
surfer girlpower flick Blue Crush.
In 2004, Rodríguez gave her voice to the hit video game
"Halo 2", playing one of the Marines. She also
currently provides the voice of Liz Ricarro in the
Cartoon Network series IGPX. From 2005 to 2006, she
played tough cop Ana Lucía Cortez on the television
series Lost during the show's second season (the
character's first appearance was a flashback on season
1's finale, Exodus: Part 1). Rodriguez still keeps in
contact with Lost co-star Cynthia Watros.
As legend has it, when director Karyn Kusama was casting
the lead for her directorial debut, Girlfight, she
wanted to find a young woman who would radiate the
powerful, surly charisma of the young Marlon Brando. Her
search for an actor with this enviable but elusive
quality ended when Michelle Rodriguez, a 20-year-old
Latina whose previous experience was limited to work as
an extra, answered an ad in Backstage magazine that
Kusama had posted.
Cast as Diana Guzman, the fierce and vibrant protagonist
of Kusama's story of a high school girl who takes up
boxing, Rodriguez went on to earn almost universal
acclaim for her powerful portrayal, winning the
admiration of audiences and critics from Sundance to
Toronto.
Of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent, Rodriguez was
born in Bell County, TX, on July 12, 1978. She moved
around throughout her childhood and adolescence, living
for a time in Texas, Puerto Rico, the Dominican
Republic, and Jersey City, NJ.
It was while she was working as an extra in various film
productions that she answered Kusama's ad for actors;
after being cast as Girlfight's protagonist, she trained
intensively to condition her body like that of a boxer
to such a degree that, at one point, she was even asked
to go pro.
Her dedication to the physical and emotional demands of
her character paid off lavishly, when Girlfight
premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival it received
the Grand Jury Prize, with Rodriguez's performance
singled out as one of the most exciting breakthroughs in
years; among the many kudos she subsequently received
was the National Board of Review's prize for Best
Breakthrough Performance.
Rodriguez's status as one of the year's New Hot Young
Thangs on the Block was duly reflected by the attention
she was subsequently paid in both the media and
Hollywood. In the following year, her projects included
Rob Cohen's The Fast and the Furious, an urban
adrenaline extravaganza in which she played the tough
girlfriend of a gang leader alongside Vin Diesel, Paul
Walker, and Jordanna Brewster, and 3 A.M., a
made-for-cable drama which cast her as a taxi driver and
was screened at the Sundance Festival.
Striving to maintain the balance between sexy and tough,
Rodriguez would take on zombies in Resident Evil (2002)
before hitting the waves in Blue Crush. Though neither
film proved a bona fide box-office smash, they did offer
the up and coming actress the exposure needed to develop
an enduring career. Rodriguez could next be seen
opposite Colin Farrell in the hard-hitting action
thriller S.W.A.T.
Rodriguez recently starred in the horror movie The
Breed, and has more recently been featured in her own
episode of G4's show Icons. Battle in Seattle, her
latest film, now in post-production, is due for release
in December 2007.
Personal life: Rodriguez dated The Fast and the
Furious co-star, Vin Diesel. In 2006, she expressed a
romantic interest in Irish actor, Colin Farrell. In July
2006, Rodriguez told UK's Cosmopolitan magazine that she
was not gay, but had "experimented" with
women. However, on November 14, 2006, her openly
bisexual Bloodrayne co-star Kristanna Loken's comments
to The Advocate were widely interpreted and reported as
an admission that the two are in a serious relationship.
Asked about the relationship in April 2007, Kristanna
Loken said, "We're great friends. She'll always
remain a great, close friend of mine. I'll always love
Michelle."
On her blog, Rodriguez accused Curve magazine of
attempting to "out" her, saying the following,
and seeming to suggest that her reason for not talking
about her orientation is fear it would limit her career:
As far as rumors go of me coming out, I guess curve
magazine took it upon themselves to out me on the
premise of their own suspicions. Whatever, I'm not
insulted, I have a big lesbian following, and for
whatever reasons they show me love I'm never going to
shun, disrespect or neglect anybody who shows me genuine
non-psychotic Love. But I will Say this, to put words in
someone's mouth and place people in categories affects
them for sure, especially in this business. I don't know
what the intent behind the curve magazine cover was. I
wasn't informed of it, I had no Idea they were planning
on using my image to sell magazines. By the way I only
got kicked out of five schools not six...
Look, I guess what I'm trying to say ultimately is that,
if I wanted people to know what I do with my Vagina I
would have released A sex video a long time ago. Yet i
haven't done that. You know why? Because extremists can
rarely be mediators, mass communicators, or chameleons
for that matter. I have bin an extremist in my personal
life, Yes. Yet I have never really over stepped the
boundaries consciously in the public eye. I have really
focused on specific types of films for that very reason,
I don't need to be limited by judgmental labels,
especially in a society ruled mostly by an MTV A.D.D.
mentality. See, I even labeled, It's almost second
nature to the generation Y culture, and what about the
popular culture groups that buy up all the US Weekly's,
In Touch's, Hello's And the readers of sites like Perez
Hilton.com.
If I were Ellen I may get away with: ' The I'm Gay'
level of exposure, but I'm not a comedian, I like men; (
real One's Anyway) and I've only bin in this business
for 7 years not 20. Years of recognition can give a
person lots of leverage especially if you have many
years of positive recognition under your belt. There are
certain things that can close doors between a celebrity
and certain audiences. Especially in a world where walls
are constantly being put up by people seeking comfort
and groups to belong to. There is so much out there,
over-saturation of music, media, Agenda News, war,
political drama, high school prom drama, image drama,
religion drama, Bully drama. All this drama is caused by
one thing, not understanding the true meaning of
communication and the real power behind it. It's tough
to learn, I'm working on it myself, but when people come
out of nowhere and put words in my mouth or call me Gay,
they should really think for one second How they could
truly affect my life by doing such things. You don't
know what producer, director, would be husband or future
audience member may be influenced by these opinions and
media content.
After her relationship, in question, with Loken, she was
linked by newspapers to Kylie Minogue's ex Olivier
Martinez.
Legal troubles:
- In March 2002, Rodriguez was arrested and charged
for assaulting her female roommate. The charges were
later dropped after the roommate declined to press
the allegations in court.
- In November 2003, Rodriguez went to court to face
eight misdemeanor charges based on two road
incidents: On July 22, she left the scene of an
accident after hitting another motorist. And on
November 4, she sped through an intersection while
under the influence of alcohol. She had a suspended
license both times. In June 2004, Rodriguez pleaded
no contest in Los Angeles to three of the charges:
hit and run, drunken driving, and driving with a
suspended license. She went to jail for 48 hours,
performed community service at the morgues of two
New York hospitals, completed a three-month alcohol
program, and was placed on probation for three
years.
- In 2005, while filming Lost in Hawaii,
Rodriguez was pulled over by Honolulu police
multiple times; she was cited for driving 83 mph in
a 55 mph zone on Oahu on Nov. 1 and was fined $357,
paid a $300 fine for driving 90 mph in a 35 mph zone
on Oct. 20, was fined $197 for going 80 mph in a 50
mph zone on August 24. On December 1, 2005,
Rodriguez and her Lost co-star, Cynthia
Watros were separately pulled over and arrested for
driving under the influence. Rodriguez pleaded not
guilty when arraigned, but on the day of her trial
in April 2006, she pleaded guilty to one charge of
driving under the influence. She chose to pay a $500
fine and spend five days in jail instead of doing
240 hours of community service. Rodriguez blamed her
allergy-relieving steroids for the drunk driving and
"energetic" behaviour. The fact that her
and Watros' characters were killed off led some fans
to believe that it was a result of the arrests,
however Rodriguez and producers said their exit from
the show had been planned before the season began
and the arrests were just coincidental.
- Because the Kailua incident was a violation of her
Los Angeles probation, Rodriguez was sentenced to 60
days in jail, a 30 day alcohol rehabilitation
program and another 30 days of community service,
including work for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, by
a judge in Los Angeles on May 1, 2006. Because of
overcrowding, she was released from jail on the same
day she entered it. As of June 2006, she will still
have to serve the community service. She wrote about
the experience on her blog.
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