MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ PUTS HER MONEY WHERE HER MOUTH IS
"Million Dollar Mami"

"Ever notice how much you kick after staying out drinking all night?" asks Michelle Rodriguez, taking a whiff of her own armpit. Before I can reply, she's locked in the bathroom of my West Hollywood hotel room, claiming somewhat emphatically that among alcohol's many ills is its tendency to give her gas. It's already past noon, but Rodriguez is still rocking the same gear I'd met her in the night before at LA's Chateau Marmont - a fitted, slate-colored tank that matches the smoky glare of her eyes, high-end designer hiphuggers riding spectacularly close to her chrack, flat sandals, no purse.

Aside from her alleged funk and a few nondescript smudges on her jeans, you'd never suspect that she'd just done the walk of shame up the Sunset Strip. In fact, she actually calls to say she'll be only twenty minutes late, which, if you factr in the CPT (celebrity people time) curve, means she's really a few hours early.

"I can party my ass off and act like a total ditz in front of the camera - but I'm on point," she reminds me, rubbing in the fact that neither cumulative slep deprivation nor gastrointestinal malaise can prevent her complexion from glowing like a neon pub sign; or that the gloss coming off her hair rivals that of any Pantene-pushing puta on prime time. Then again, that's just the type of chick Michelle is. Camouflaged in complexity, her presence fluctuates between the stark shamelessness of a Jersey truck driver and a subtle, sexy sophistication. Exuding a brilliant combination of ghettofabulousness and spirituality, she's a true Cancer...an impenetrable outside that quite successfully belies the sometimes tumultuous tenderness within.

"Sometimes the Hollywood thing makes me so sad," she says of her career, "because of how I feel when it comes to the ethics and the morals and standing up for your independence - not just being famous 'cause you're someone's girlfriend, but being that girl who's out there proving to little kids that you don't need nobody. I don't see anyone out there doing it. Then they wonder, 'Oh Michelle...how come you don't wanna do this film or that film? The star is a hot A-list actor! You mean, you don't wanna band him on screen? You'll be making five mil next year!' But see, I know I'll be making it anyway, because I'll be making the movies I wanna make, that are positive. And honestly, they're intimidated by the fact that I will sit here and starve before I do something I feel is not right."

That said, it's no wonder that Hollywood doesn't know what to do with her. From the jump, she was labeled as "difficult", "tough" and "intimidating". Hardly what you'd expect from a diminutive Domini-Rican honey-dip raised by her Bible-wielding abuelita. Of course, her actingas a hook-happy female boxing champ in the widely acclaimed indie film Girlfight did nothing to nurture the sappy starlet image that Hollywood jerks itself off to. Nor did her untraditional follow-up roles in The Fast and the Furious and Blue Crush. Five years later, when a big-budget film with a plot nearly identical to Girlfight's (and an ugly but less outspoken white protagonist) wins the Oscar for Best Picture, she doesn't care to bitch about it. In fact, Clint can kiss her culo - she's not about to get her boxers in a bunch over Swank's simulated fighting skills. Because in every sense of the word, Michelle really is a fighter...and she certainly isn't pulling any punches for anyone in la-la land.

"In this game, [producers] just look at your name right? And they see how it would look next to where it say 'starring in'. They think, 'Michelle Rodriguez, can we see jer as Wonder Woman? No, Wonder Woman is an all-American hero.' Yet they'll take a blue-eyed white boy and call him Don Quijote de la Macha," she says in her trademark rasp.

"According to the census figures, the majority of the US is white. But you know what? I can't sit here and dictate, all I can do is go out there and try to come up with a solution....and the big solution, in my book, is coming out in a way that's universal. If you're going to have a story about a Latino family, then it has to be about the typical, about something that everyone can relate to. That's why My Big Fat Greek Wedding was so successful - the reality is that the majority of America is not that good looking....so they can empathize with a character that's a lot like them. But people don't do this with Latino products, and I'm not gonna sit here and complain about it. I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna do it."

And she is doing it. Recently, with the help of a few close friends, Michelle launched her own production company, Cheshire Cat. In collaboration with New Level Films, Michelle is currently working on Comedy Angels, a film project that she describes as "Scarface meets Thelma & Louise."

"The film is very....nitty-gritty," she explains. "It really shows that female camaraderie that you so rarely see in moves. It's about a rich Jewish girl from the Upper East Side - but she's a rebel, and she leaves her family to go out on her own. Then she meets my character, a Latina from Washington Heights, who quits med school to take care of her family, and now she's hustling. The next thing you know they get together, Thelma & Louise-style, and come upon these kilos of coke. It's just like this action-packed, fun adventure."

As one of barely a handful of successful Hollywood Latinas, you almost expect Michelle to play the minority card - to cite her of-color status as one of the main reasons why she's gonna bust her ass three times as hard as anyone else - and why a lot of directors won't fuck with her. But she doesn't. In fact, she's quick to take on the responsibility that comes with "keeping it real", even if sometimes it leaves her feeling isolated. .

"I'll admit I feel like droppin' people and smacking 'em sometimes," she blurts out when I mention the intensity with which the paparazzi have been hounding her lately. And according to them, she sometimes does. All in the course of about a month, she's been labeled in the tabloids a closet lesbian, a conflict-seeking bully, and a rambunctious party animal. Yet, when I congratulate her on a recent (and grossly misconstrued) account of her "picking a fight" with sperspaz Bijou Phillips, she quickly sets the record straight. In actuality, it was Phillips, who popped off by making a snide remark about one of Michelle's friends. Highly vexed, Michelle quickly jumped to her pana's defensem threatening - to "spay her like a cat".

"Nah, but it was so uneducated of me," she says shaking her head. "That kind of thing will never happen again....because what I did was step down from a responsible place to and stoop way down to her level. It's so stupid - unless the girl touches me. You know, if you don't touch me, then you don't get hurt. But I guess when she messed with my friend - it felt like she touched me...."

These days, a subtler, more mature Michelle is blossoming. "I'm so tired of that attitude - all of this anger. It's like, Stop being angry, man - if somebody doesn't speak your language, then learn their language. If they speak money, then speak money....because if you have a message, then you need to translate it. When you learn to speak the language of green, then [Hollywood] will understand."

One thing's for sure - Tinseltown can't pull the wool over those wild onyx eyes. Most scripts don't impress her anyway, and although in the past she's toyed with the idea of becoming an A-list sellout (making a ton of cash first, and then switching gears to keep it real), something always got in the way of her pulling an all-out Oprah. .

Perhaps it's the mark of a hardcore chica from round-the-way - the ones who weren't born and bred in Beverly Hills, whose daddie don't own production companies....the ones who work for their success. Or maybe it's that old gypsy sould of hers and the streetwise mentality cultivated on the streets of Union City that keep Rodriguez's feet on the concrete. Whatever the case, it's gonna take a lot to sway this prizefighter from what she truly wants in life. And, unlike most women her age, she's even willing to put off romance until she's where she wants to be.

"A lot of girls I know love thugs," she says, reflecting on what that would mean, " 'cuz a thug will knock a nigga out for you....like, 'oh, my man will shoot somebody for me'; and that turns them on....but I like men - I don't like boys. I like me a cowboy - a man who's not scared to get his hands dirty....but he's gotta have class. It can't just be some cat who's all rugged and selling drugs and shit....he has to have some intelligence and he has to have passion....'cuz me, I need a reason to live....and if you hate the world or are just a sheisty individual just trying to get over - I'm not about that. I've been there and done that."

But the other end of the spectrum doesn't cut it either. "Most of the filthy loaded, overeducated cats that I know are so insecure - it's like they feel 'I have the money. I have power....now what I need is...." A dick? I offer. "Exactly," she replies breaking into peals of laughter. And I know exactly what she means....'cuz Michelle Rodriguez is a chick who's found her center - and the sad truth of it all is that out here in all the glitz and glam of Hollywood, it's hard to find a middle ground.

(Source: Fuego)