> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Michelle Rodriguez prefers role as ‘tough chick’ - URL: https://www.smdp.com/michelle-rodriguez-prefers-role-as-tough-chick/ - Published: 2002-03-15T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:08:43.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import *‘Girlfight’ star wants to be listened to, not leered at* *By SEAN DALY Special to the Daily Press* Michelle Rodriguez relaxes in blue denim jeans and a black sleeveless tank top. Her hair is pulled tight in a ponytail, and she is wearing little makeup. Not surprisingly, this is how the Texas-born actress feels most relaxed. “I don't want people thinking of me sexually,” said Rodriguez, who began to develop something of a “touch-chick” reputation two summers ago, after beating out 350 hopefuls for the lead role of Diana Guzman in the movie “Girlfight.” “I don't want people to be like, ‘God, she's hot looking. Look at her in that shirt with her tits showing.’ I want them to listen to me for what I'm saying. > “I want them to listen to me for what I'm saying. And I think the best way to do that is to sniff my armpits, and sit up and burp every now and then.” — — MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ Actress “And I think the best way to do that is to sniff my armpits, and sit up and burp every now and then.” Rodriguez, 23, has never been afraid to mince words. She is outspoken about sex, relationships, even politics, admitting, “I don't vote. I'm gonna live my life the way everyone else does — in ignorance.” Just don't even get her started about gender roles. “Masculine, at least in my eyes, means acting on impulse,” she said, in between sips of Perrier water. “When you're feminine, most of the time it means you are using your sexuality to get what you want.” That's something Rodriguez maintained she’ll never do. “(Growing up), I was always considered a bit butch. In fact, I cultivated the image. It was my defiance against having to be a sex object like the other girls in my class. The boys considered me to be ‘one of the guys’ until I finally developed breasts.” Today, Rodriguez maintains a no-nonsense policy when it comes to men and dating. “I feel that if anybody wants to like me or wants to have a relationship with me, I shouldn't have to woo them with my tits or my ass or cross my legs ‘Basic Instinct’-style in order to get what I want,” she said. Rodriguez, rumored last year to be romancing actor Vin Diesel, her co-star from “The Fast and The Furious,” has a firm stance against appearing in mens' magazines such as Maxim and Gear — even though she knows it could help to broaden her audience and further propel her career. 699,“I don't use my sexuality to attract anybody,” she said. “I can take my shirt off right now (in a magazine) and it'll come out and some newspaper will be like, ‘Michelle liberated herself.’ I had a couple of offers to do some hot scenes in the shower with some guy and make it real hot and sexy, you know? The next thing you know, I'd be the next J-Lo or something...I'd rather be stereotyped as a tough dyke than as a complete slut.” That's one reason Rodriguez chose to appear in the new action-thriller “Resident Evil.” She stars with Milla Javovich as part of an elite, futuristic team that sets out to battle a rouge computer and its minions. “Resident Evil” is the latest in a series of films based on popular video games and has already caught the eye of some concerned parents. “When you take away the nudity and the curses, it's no different from any other action film that kids have seen,” Rodriguez said. “I don't think it's that much racier than ‘The Fast and The Furious’...except for the guts and the gore.” Rodriguez, who likened the video game to a Hitchcock movie, lobbied hard to land the role of Rain. She recalled telling director Paul Anderson, “I don't care if I’m selling a hot dog as a zombie in your movie, please put me in.” What Anderson may not have known at the time, was that Rodriguez had her heart set on the role of Lara Croft in another video game adaptation, “Tomb Raider.” “(The producers of that movie) said I could kick butt, but my boobs were too small,” she said. “Then they turned around and padded Angelina Jolie anyway! But I consider getting ‘Resident Evil’ as karmic consolation. I think ‘Tomb Raider’ was meant to be Angelina's movie.” Rodriguez made the best of her time on location in London and Berlin, often joking with Jovovich, a former fashion model. “Mila tried to get me to wear makeup and dress more feminine,” the actress said, laughing. “She discovered very quickly that's a lost cause. I am who I am, and glamour and image play no part in it.” A movie extra in such films as “Summer of Sam” and “The Cradle Will Rock,” Rodriguez spent time in Texas, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, before relocating for the final time to Jersey City, New Jersey at age 11. By 14, she was riding shotgun with her boyfriend on the streets of nearby Hunt's Point, where he would illegally race his Mazda RX-7. “I was a rebel growing up,” she admitted. “I got kicked out of six schools. But I don't think that makes me less of an intellect. You know, if you ever crave knowledge, there is always a library. The Dewey Decimal System really works. So that's all I needed to know.” Rodriguez did take a quick stab at business school, but dropped out after just four months. “I just didn't want to be a puppet of society, stuck in an office, craving sunlight,” she said. Sharing a home with her mother and grandmother, Rodriguez was raised a Jehovah's Witness until age 14. 6DA,“That was a very morally intense religion,” she said. “Although they keep you from experiencing a lot of the bad things that can really hurt you out there in the world, they are also depriving you from experiencing life.” Rodriguez eventually stopped practicing the faith, noting that taboos against profanity and sexual situations would have made it all but impossible for her to accept the role in “Girlfight.” Meanwhile, friends and family were more concerned that the physical contact in that film would land Rodriguez in the hospital. “You are gonna get whacked and your teeth are gonna fall off,” she remembered one friend warning. But Rodriguez, who has since developed a passion for skydiving, was unafraid. Of course, she admitted there a few situations that do make her tingle nervously. “Every time I go on a rollercoaster ride I still feel the same,” she said. “When it's clanking and clanking and I reach the peak and I'm like, ‘Aw, s--t, not again!” There are a few other secrets Rodriguez tries to not to advertise — for one she is completely lost in the kitchen. “Don't ever come over to my house and expect me to cook,” said the actress, who still shares a New jersey home with her mother. “I spend most of my time in Japanese restaurants eating vegetables.” And yes, despite her sometime hard-as-nails shell, there are even things that can bring a tear to this tough girl's eyes. “I cried during ‘Bambi,” she said. “I cried at ‘The Lion King.’ And I cry every time I watch TV and see the kids in Africa. Anyone who knows how to love cries.” That's the mystique of Rodriguez. No one seems to have her quite figured out. “I'm just a big misunderstood love ball,” she said, laughing. “People take me the wrong way constantly.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 15, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/031502.pdf?ref=smdp.com)