1. Michelle Rodriguez's closet is filled wall to wall with nothing but black tank tops.
2. Michelle Rodriguez is always a cop. Except when she's a Marine.
3. Michelle Rodriguez has a nasty habit of getting herself killed all the time.
2. Michelle Rodriguez is always a cop. Except when she's a Marine.
3. Michelle Rodriguez has a nasty habit of getting herself killed all the time.
Mayte Michelle Rodriguez (born July 12, 1978) is a Latina Americannote actress best known for playing stoic, badass Action Girl characters (that are often in the army or a police officer) in movies such as The Fast and the Furious franchise, Resident Evil (2002), Avatar, and Machete. She also made a brief foray into television by playing — you guessed it — a badass cop character that dies in Lost. She tends to die often in movies, but at least in a badass way.
She came out as bisexual in 2013 casually during an interview, and has supported LGBT+ causes, though she's unwilling to discuss her personal life further, disliking the news media's focus on her sexuality.
Rodriguez has said she was a comic book nerd growing up, reading many and collecting cards. She really loved to draw superheroes, and still draws a lot. Later, she also frequently played Dungeons & Dragons (and ended up co-starring in Honor Among Thieves, the 2023 reboot of the film series adapting the game). Definitely One of Us.
Filmography
- Girlfight (2000) as Diana Guzman
- The Fast and the Furious as Leticia "Letty" Ortiz
- The Fast and the Furious (2001)
- Fast & Furious (2009)
- Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
- Furious 7 (2015)
- The Fate of the Furious (2017)
- Fast & Furious Crossroads (2020, voice)
- F9 (2021)
- Fast X (2023)
- Resident Evil (2002) as Rain Ocampos
- Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
- Blue Crush (2002) as Eden
- S.W.A.T. (2003) (2003) as Christina "Chris" Sanchez
- True Crime: Streets of LA (2003) as Rosie Velasco (voice)
- DRIV3R (2004) as Calita (voice)
- Halo 2 (2004) as Marine (voice)
- BloodRayne (2005) as Katarin
- Lost (2005-06, 2009-10) as Ana Lucia Cortez
- IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix (2005-06) as Liz Ricarro (voice)
- Battle In Seattle (2007) as Lou
- Avatar (2009) as Trudy Chacón
- Machete (2010) as Luz / Shé
- Machete Kills (2013)
- Battle: Los Angeles (2011) as Elena Santos
- CollegeHumor Originals (2011) as Jessica
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012) as Strike Force Soldier (voice)
- Turbo (2013) as Paz (voice)
- The Assignment (2016) as Frank Kitchen
- Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) as Smurfstorm (voice)
- Widows (2018) as Linda
- Alita: Battle Angel (2019) as Gelda
- She Dies Tomorrow (2020) as Sky
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) as Holga
Tropes commonly used in her roles:
- Action Girl: She has stated that she won't work in Latin American cinema because of their reductive views on female characters. She also turns down any submissive roles that get offered to her in the U.S. She usually does her own stunts, too, as seen in movies including The Fast and the Furious, Blue Crush and Girlfight.
- Actor-Inspired Element: When approached to star in Lost, she requested to only be around for a season, so her character is killed off at the end of Season 2.
- Actor-Shared Background: She's usually played Latinas when her character's ethnicity is shown.
- Awesome, Dear Boy: She told her agent to let her know the second a Resident Evil movie was greenlit, and sure enough, she played Rain in Paul WS Anderson's film.
- Celebrity Is Overrated: She is very vocal about her private life having no bearing on her work, and resents having her bisexuality brought up all the time.
- Celebrity Voice Actor: Averted. Though Michelle is well-known for her live-action roles, her voice acting resume is rather extensive and dates back to the early 2000s.
- Chronically Killed Actor: Since she's often Vasquez, this comes into play quite often.
- Her character ostensibly gets killed off-screen during the The Fast and the Furious franchise, but eventually averts the trope in the post-credits scene of Fast Five, and she returns in the sixth movie.
- In Resident Evil (2002) the SWAT team member Rain Ocampo becomes a Zombie Infectee a third of the way through, survives almost all the way through the rest of the film, and then dies on a tram a few minutes away from a cure. Blonde, minidress-wearing Alice becomes the Final Girl. The franchise lasted long enough that they brought her back via cloning for the fifth film. And both clones die.
- Averted in S.W.A.T. (2003), where she plays an LAPD officer in a SWAT team. She takes a bullet in the arm in the final battle but survives.
- Subverted in Machete: we're meant to think her character dies when she's shot through the eye, but she reappears at the climax of the movie with an Eyepatch of Power.
- In Avatar, she is a gruff gunship pilot who dons warpaint and dies in the final battle. The Blue-Skinned Space Babe Nubile Savage love interest lives.
- Averted in Battle: Los Angeles where she plays an Air Force Technical Sergeant, and doesn't die.
- Her character dies on Lost, though Anyone Can Die there (and she even cameos in the sixth season... for scenes in the afterlife).
- The Dorkly article, "These Eight Characters are Definitely Going to Die
", includes her by name.How They're Going to Die: Sneering into the camera.
Why: Because she gets so much shit done, there's nothing left for the protagonist to do. - Subverted in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Her character dies in the final fight, but is resurrected pretty much immediately.
- Covered in Gunge: She was slimed alongside Chris Pine during the 2023 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards while presenting a promo for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
- Dawson Casting: Diana in Girlfight is a teenager, but Michelle was already in her twenties.
- Dyeing for Your Art:
- She trained for two months to prepare for Girlfight.
- The physical training she did for Battle: Los Angeles was so intense that she was still in great shape when she filmed Machete.
- Enforced Method Acting: She didn't know how to drive when she was cast in The Fast and the Furious, and learned during production for the sake of a scene.
- Kubrick Stare: She's very fond of giving these in her movies.
- Ms. Fanservice: Try to find a movie where she's not in revealing clothing, sex scenes or even topless.
- Perpetual Frowner: Her characters tend to be stoic and serious, with very little in the way of warmth. Thus, it can be a shock to see her smiling and laughing in interviews.
- Romance on the Set: She dated Vin Diesel during The Fast and the Furious. It's also rumored that she dated Kristanna Loken while filming BloodRayne.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: As a Tanktop Tomboy, her roles often mean forgoing sleeves to seem tougher.
- Spicy Latina: Her appearance in S.W.A.T. (2003) provides the page image, and she plays lots of characters who fit this, with the standard looks, quick tempers, and toughness from harsh backgrounds.
- Star-Making Role: With The Fast and the Furious and Resident Evil (2002), she broke out quite quickly.
- Tank-Top Tomboy: She seemingly always wears tanktops in her roles, showing her as less of a girly-girl while still allowing for some fanservice. In many, many roles her characters are firm tomboys.
- Throw It In!: A gag in Widows when Linda likens Alice's dress to a condom was an ad-lib by Michelle.
- Typecasting: Her roles don't vary much, usually being some variety of tough action girl/tomboy. See this Cracked.com article for an analysis. She claims it's her own fault for turning down more passive roles.
- Unkempt Beauty: She's often portrayed as a grease monkey or other character type who usually stays or otherwise looks dirty while still being quite beautiful.
- Vasquez Always Dies: She usually plays the tougher girl in a work, and dies for it.
- What Could Have Been:
- Rain was supposed to die much earlier in Resident Evil (2002) (JD's death was meant for her). The reasons for the change range from Michelle being one of the most recognizable names in the cast and therefore better to keep in the film longer, or Milla Jovovich protesting to make the female characters more empowered (her character Alice was originally just a Damsel in Distress until she protested).
- She was the first choice for the lead in the Æon Flux movie, which ended up played by Charlize Theron.
- She was considered for the role of Christine in Crash that went to Thandiwe Newton.
- Her character Santos didn't exist in the initial drafts of Battle: Los Angeles, and wasn't added until a month before filming began.
- In Resident Evil: Retribution she filmed some scenes as a zombie doppelganger, but they were cut.
- She initially turned down the role of Linda in Widows ("I didn't see the female empowerment in soft power. It was an all-too-familiar tale of poverty in an urban environment. I've lived that life - why would I want to portray it?"). Steve McQueen auditioned several other actresses, none of whom he felt fit the role, so he met with Michelle and convinced her to sign on.
