MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ
F9 and Other Kickass Roles
While the release of Michelle Rodriguez’s latest movie, F9, has been delayed for a year due to COVID-19 (or plague 2020), we can still take a moment to appreciate this badass woman and some of the fantastic roles she’s played. This tough chick started acting in 2000 when she got the lead role in Karyn Kusama’s movie about a female boxer, Girlfight. Her audition for the leading role was her first-ever. Yeah, she landed a starring role on her first try, talk about being cool! One year later, she would play the character for which she is most known today, Letty, in The Fast and the Furious franchise. With the release of F9 delayed until 2021, Rodriguez has played Letty for two decades.
Of course, she’s taken on many roles in addition to Letty, and yes, they are all take-no-prisoners, kickass women. She played Luz, the leader of an illegal immigrant aid movement, in Robert Rodriguez’s (no relation) Machete and Machete Kills. And she played widow-turned-criminal Linda in the oft-maligned Steve McQueen movie Widows. In addition to her intense movie roles, Rodriguez also spent a couple years playing the tough-as-nails cop Ana Lucia Cortez on the ABC drama series Lost.
Those are only a few of Rodriguez’s terrific roles. Now that we’re all stuck inside for the foreseeable future as pandemic precautions continue and we won’t be able to see F9 anytime soon, treat yourself to a Michelle Rodriguez marathon. Sure, maybe she can’t destroy a plague with her bare hands (who could do that?) But, her movies can offer a much-needed escape during these trying times. Isn’t it always fun to watch a woman kicking ass and taking names?
