Mar. 16, 01:00 EDT
Just don't call her feminine
Resident Evil co-star Michelle Rodriguez pulls no punches
Sean Daly
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
LOS ANGELES — Michelle Rodriguez is dressed in blue jeans and a black sleeveless tank top. Her hair is pulled tight in a ponytail, and she is wearing hardly any makeup.
Not surprisingly, this is how the co-star of Resident Evil, which opened yesterday, feels most relaxed.
"I don't want people thinking of me sexually," says the Texas-born actress who began to develop something of a "tough chick" reputation two summers ago, after beating out 350 hopefuls for the lead role of Diana Guzman in 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. And I think the best way to do that is to sniff my armpits, and sit up and burp every now and then. It just completely throws people off."
Rodriguez, 23, doesn't 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."
And don't even get her started about gender roles.
"Masculine, at least in my eyes, means acting on impulse," she blurts in between sips of Perrier. "When you're feminine, most of the time it means you are using your sexuality to get what you want."
That's something Rodriguez maintains she would never do.
Proudly, she admits that 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 says.
Rodriguez, rumoured last year to be romancing Vin Diesel, her co-star from The Fast And The Furious, has also developed a firm stance against appearing in men's magazines such as Maxim and Gear — even though she knows it could help to broaden her audience and further propel her career.
"I don't use my sexuality to attract anybody," she insists. "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 Jovovich as part of an elite, futuristic team that sets out to battle a 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," says Rodriguez, defending the film. "I don't think it's that much racier than The Fast And The Furious ... except for the guts and the gore."
Rodriguez, who likens the video game to "a Hitchcock movie" because of its intense, old-time feel, lobbied hard to land the role of Rain. She recalls 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 recalls. "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. "Milla tried to get me to wear makeup and dress more feminine," she remembers, laughing. "She discovered very quickly that's a lost cause. I am who I am, and glamour and image play no part in it."
As a child, Rodriguez spent time in Texas, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic before relocating a final time to Jersey City, N.J., 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 admits. "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, who has been an extra in such films as Summer Of Sam and Cradle Will Rock, did take a quick stab at business school but dropped out after just four months because, she says, "I just didn't want to be a puppet of society, stuck in an office, craving sunlight."
Sharing a home with her mother and grandmother, Rodriguez was raised a Jehovah's Witness until age 14. "That was a very morally intense religion," she remembers. "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 stop-ped practising the faith, noting that taboos against profanity and sex 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 remembers one friend warning.
But Rodriguez, who has since developed a passion for skydiving, was unafraid.
Of course, she does admit there a few situations that do make her tingle nervously. "Every time I go on a roller coaster ride I still feel the same," she says. "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 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," says the actress, who still shares a New Jersey home with her mother. "I spend most of my time in Japanese restaurants eating vegetables. I love falafels and stuff like that with no meat in them."
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 reveals. "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."
Surprised?
That's the mystique of Rodriguez. No one seems to have her quite figured out.
"I'm just a big misunderstood love ball," she laughs. "People take me the wrong way constantly."