Monday, July 26, 2010

Tough it out

Michelle Rodriguez is many things. Tough. Resilient. Smoking hot in a tank top. But what she isn’t too often on screen is alive. Her characters have the unfortunate tendency to end up dead. How dead and how often? Well, off the top of my head:
Resident Evil – Dead
BloodRayne – Dead
Lost – Dead
Fast & Furious – Dead
Avatar – Dead

So, that’s a lot of resting in pieces. Now, Michelle has her own thoughts on why this keeps happening. She told io9.com at Comic-Con:

“Because I don’t take my clothes off, and I'm nobody’s girlfriend. The writers are new to the whole tough girl thing, and they don’t know what to do with [me]. We’ve got the dude who’s strong, so what do we do with the chick who’s strong? We kill her. Eventually they’ll get used to it, and maybe Salt will change a thing or two.”

Now, I haven’t always agreed with Michelle on everything, but right here she is right on the money. Hollywood doesn’t know what to do with the tough girl. And women who consistently play tough, well they really don’t know what to do with them. Oh, wait, they do – kill them.

Michelle was also her delightfully colorful and non-PC self again when speaking with The Playlist at Comic-Con. [Hat tip, Norma Desmond!] When asked about being typecast as “The Tough Girl,” she let loose. Witness.

“Oh baby, I was typecast the minute I did a film called, 'Girlfight' years ago. That has nothing to do with anything, it just to do with... you allow yourself to be typecast. If I decided I didn’t want to be typecast tomorrow I’d just go do an indie film where I play some poor girl who goes through some excruciating experience and win myself an award for crying or being raped [breaks into laughter] or playing someone with mental illness. But at the end of the day I’m not in it for the acting. If I were in it for the acting then I would be worried about people not giving me the opportunity to express my vast array of emotions on the screen.

I could give two shits. I only wanna be someone or I respect or someone that I consider interesting or fun. I’m here to entertain people and make a statement about female empowerment and strength and that’s what I've done for the last 10 years, and people can call it typecast, but I pigeonholed myself and I put myself in that box for saying no to everything else that came on my plate. Saying no to the girlfriend, saying no to the girl that gets captured, no to this, no to that and eventually I just got left with the strong chick that’s always being killed and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Nope, Michelle, nothing at all. Well, except for the dead part. Those are some mighty big swipes she is taking, but I would expect nothing less from an actor who says she isn’t in it for the acting. So how about letting the strong chick live instead? Come on, Hollywood, are you ready to be strong?

18 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:44 AM

    oh dear god, that last pic...
    "Officer, I've been very, very bad. May I be arrested please?"

    oh, and yeah, fuck yeah! strong chicks!!

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  2. Ah Ms Snarker, you don't know how painful the wait is for your fresh, witty observations on a long lonely Monday on the other side of the world!
    Hilarious, once again!

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  3. Patricia3:54 AM

    it only shows that we didn´t walk far since Alien/Ripley. But, Ripley did (almost) took her clothes out, and she (almost) had 2 boyfriends... I do wish Michelle still has her "Salt" opportunity.

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  4. Anonymous4:47 AM

    I love her, damn it! How can someone this tough be so closeted?!

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  5. multiple duis and a hit and run are not sexy

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  6. "The writers are new to the whole tough girl thing, and they don’t know what to do with [me]."

    No they're not. Umm Angelina Jolie in TomRaider and Salt, and the first "tough girl"Sigourney Weaver in the Alien franchise Angela Basset in "Strange Days" (1994) there are loads more. Maybe the producers don't think that Michelle has enough "Star Power" to stay through the movie's entirety. That seems more plausible.

    Seriously now I know that Rodriguez wasn't born yesterday, so is it the liquor talking?

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  7. Anonymous7:24 AM

    Sorry can't make any comment on article or content within because that last pic blew my brain. Whoooooooooo. Where is that from?
    hummina, hummina, hummina!

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  8. Anonymous8:42 AM

    I think you must like her as much as I do!! And who could not after Blue Crush, when she spends almost all her time in a bikini. She IS so hot and non-PC. It is a nice breath of fresh air in Hollywood!

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  9. Anonymous9:12 AM

    WORD!!

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  10. When tough chicks stop dying, we can thank Michelle for "toughing it out" through the death scenes.

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  11. Anonymous10:20 AM

    She didn't die in Blue Crush. LOL

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  12. Anonymous11:24 AM

    ds?
    do you want a comment from me?
    I think I don't understand,

    anyway, based on the story,
    how I feel,
    now she should kill, instead of dead.
    in acting of course.

    that's what I feel logically.
    somewhat who is she?
    I didn't saw her in lost.

    p.s,
    sometime I think somewhat,
    you're kind of great ds.
    not relate with the posting, anyway.
    just. giggle, great. :)
    love you ds!!

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  13. I guess we're past the point with those shows/movies where you could reasonably be required to post spoiler alerts about her dying in those movies...

    ;)

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  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  15. That is a lot of dying. Definitely a pattern.

    On the other hand . . .

    I still remember when Girlfight came out -- I was in college and the student union screened it -- and ***Spoiler Alert*** she doesn't die, in arguably one of her most iconic roles, and her breakthrough role. She is the tough chick and she lives. For me that's still my first and most significant memory of her.

    She also ***Spoiler Alert*** lives in S.W.A.T. as another very tough cookie . . .

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  16. Sorry to interupt but this Monday is a black day for me ebcause of the Loveparade in my city Duisburg.

    20 deaths and over 500 wounded, injured...all because of soem mediattention and money greedy mayor called Adolf Sauerland....it could have been prevented.

    I am angry really angry and can hardly sleep. Thankfully I decided against going there!

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  17. I love you for that last sentence alone.

    *tip o' the hat to Buffy*

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  18. Hat tips are so fun... :)

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