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Rodríguez was born in San Antonio,
Texas to Carmen Milady (née Pared), a native of the Dominican Republic,
and Rafael Rodríguez, a Puerto Rican who served in the military. She has a
total of ten half-siblings or siblings. She was raised by her devoutly
religious maternal grandmother and was brought up in her mother's
Jehovah's Witnesses religion. Rodríguez moved to the Dominican Republic
with her mother when she was eight and lived in Puerto Rico when she was
11, later settling in Jersey City, New Jersey. She dropped out of high
school at age 17 and later earned her GED.
Rodríguez won her first role, in the low-budget independent film,
Girlfight (2000), after attending her first audition, having run across an
ad for an open casting call. She beat 350 other applicants for the
starring part 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. Despite major industry buzz of a
possible Academy Award nomination, she did not receive the Oscar nom.
Rodríguez did however accumulate several other significant awards and
nominations for the role in independent circles, including major acting
accolades from the National Board of Review, Deauville Film Festival,
Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards, Las Vegas Film Ciritics Sierra
Awards and many others and the film itself took home top prizes at both
the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals.
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 her 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).
Rodríguez 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, is due for release in December 2007, and it has
recently been announced that she will costar in James Cameron's upcoming
scifi adventure Avatar.
In early 2000, Rodríguez broke off a near engagement to a Muslim
boyfriend, citing opposition to religious requirements he demanded of her,
which included covering herself completely. In 2001, Rodríguez then 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 both sexes". In Novermber of 2006, her openly bisexual
Bloodrayne co-star Kristanna Loken's jesting comments to The Advocate were
widely interpreted and reported by the media as an admission that the two
were in a 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." |
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"I think empathy is a
beautiful thing. I think that's the power of film though. We have
one of the most powerful, one of the greatest communicative tools
known to man. It's a form of communication and it's gonna reach you
in a way of growth- most of the time."
"I don't want people thinking of me sexually. I don't want people to
be like, 'She's hot-looking,' you know? I want them to listen to me
for what I am saying. And I think the best way to do that is to
sniff my armpits, and like, sit and burp every now and then. It just
completely throws people off. I had a couple of offers to do some
hot scenes in the shower with some guy and to make it real hot and
sexy. The next thing you know, I'd be the next J.Lo or something.
But that's easy. I want [success] the hard way."
"My favorite part of my body is my brain. I think no matter what my
body looks like I wont be satisfied unless I know how to use it."
"I don't think it's narcissistic at all to love yourself and believe
in yourself. I think some people are really scared to do that. I
have to. If I don't, I would not succeed in what I do."
"No matter what, people are so narrow minded that it won't ever be
Michelle Rodriguez the actress, it will always be Michelle Rodriguez
the Latin actress. And it's just something that I have to live with,
because of the fact that people need labels to understand things. I
can't even get into this ignorance that I'm dealing with. So I just
ignore it, you know? Ignore the ignorance."
[on why she always plays the "tough girl"]: "Well, could you really
imagine me playing the girlfriend that needs rescuing? Or the
girlfriend?" |
