"You only live once. You don't want your tombstone to read: 'Played it Safe'."
Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979 in New York City, New York) is an American actress, singer, writer, and activist.
Dawson made her film debut with the controversial 1995 teen drama Kids. Her subsequent film roles include Men in Black II, Sin City, Clerks II, Death Proof, Alexander, The Rundown, and RENT.
She joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Claire Temple, who appears in all of the franchise's Netflix series (minus The Punisher, and not for a lack of trying), in roles ranging from a single episode of Jessica Jones to a major cast member in Luke Cage. Her other famous live-action television role is the adult version of Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars since Season 2 of The Mandalorian.
Dawson was in a relationship with U.S. Senator (and one-time Presidential candidate) Cory Booker from 2019 to 2022.
Not to be confused with either a rosario-wearing vampire or a certain creek.
Filmography
- Kids (1995) as Ruby
- Josie and the Pussycats (2001) as Valerie
- Sidewalks of New York (2001) as Maria Tedesko
- Men in Black II (2002) as Laura Vasquez
- 25th Hour (2002) as Naturelle Riviera
- The Rundown (2003) as Mariana.
- Alexander (2004) as Roxane
- Sin City (2005) as Gail
- Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)
- Clerks II (2006) as Becky Scott
- Clerks III (2022)
- RENT (2005) as Mimi Marquez
- A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) as Laurie
- Death Proof (2007) as Abernathy
- Eagle Eye (2008) as Zoe Perez
- Killshot (2008) as Donna
- Seven Pounds (2008) as Emily Posa
- Wonder Woman (2009) as Artemis (voice)
- The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009) as Velvet Von Black (voice)
- SpongeBob SquarePants - Herself in Truth Or Square (2009)
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) as Persephone
- Unstoppable (2010) as Connie Hooper
- Fire with Fire (2012) as Talia Durham.
- Trance (2013)
- Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast (2014) as Nyx.
- Cesar Chavez (2014) as Dolores Huerta
- DC Animated Movie Universe (2015-present) and Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) as Wonder Woman (voice)
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (2015 – 2018) as Claire Temple:
- Daredevil (2015) (2015, 2016)
- Jessica Jones (2015) (2015)
- Luke Cage (2016)
- Iron Fist (2017)
- The Defenders (2017)
- Ratchet & Clank (2016) as Elaris
- The LEGO Batman Movie (2017) as Barbara Gordon / Batgirl (voice)
- LEGO Dimensions (2017)
- Unforgettable (2017)
- Jane the Virgin (2018) as Jane Ramosnote
- Elena of Avalor (2018) as Daria (voice)
- Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) as Nevada
- Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019) as Reggie Faulken
- It's Pony (2020) as Principal Ramiro
- Briarpatch (2020) as Allegra Dill
- Star Wars as Ahsoka Tano (Live-Action)
- The Mandalorian (2020)
- The Book of Boba Fett (2022)
- Ahsoka (2023)
- The Last Kids on Earth (2020) as Rezzoch
- Batman: The Audio Adventures (2021) as Catwoman
- Haunted Mansion (2023) as Gabbie
Dawson's work contains examples of:
- Ascended Fancast: She has stated that being a popular fancast for the role of Ahsoka Tano helped her get the role in The Mandalorian.
- Ms. Fanservice: Most of her roles either focus on her sexiness or have her appear without her clothes on, including Sin City, Alexander, Death Proof and Trance (where she appeared with full-frontal nudity, along with two sex scenes). This led her friend Ralph Garman to dub her "Hottie McChocolateSkin".
- Plays Great Ethnics: Her ethnic ambiguity has led to her diverse roles that span the world, from Brazilian in The Rundown to Bactrian (modern-day Afghanistan) in Alexander.
- Sassy Black Woman: Due to her roles, some would even go so far as to call her the Pam Grier of her generation. Due to her mixed heritage, she doubles up as a Spicy Latina.
Trivia related to Dawson's work:
- Actor-Inspired Element: For Death Proof it was her idea to have Abernathy's hair cut to resemble pin-up icon Bettie Page.
- Deleted Role: She had a small part in The Devil's Rejects but it was cut.
- The Other Darrin: The original Broadway cast of RENT carried over to the film adaptation, except Daphne Rubin-Vega who was pregnant at the time. Rosario replaced her as Mimi.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Rosario wanting to play the adult Laurie in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints resulted in the character getting a Race Lift to become Latina - and Eleonore Hendricks, the original teenage version of Laurie, getting replaced with Melonie Diaz.
- Underage Casting:
- In A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints she plays Laurie's older self. There's only five years between her and Melonie Diaz (who is admittedly relying on some heavy Dawson Casting to play a teenager).
- She's just nine years older than her on screen daughter Vanessa Hudgens in Gimme Shelter.
- What Could Have Been: She was cast to play Cecilia Reyes in The New Mutants, in which case she would have joined Josh Brolin as actors who migrated from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the X-Men Film Series. However she was forced to drop out because the scheduling demands for Luke Cage (2016) would interfere with filming.
