Nylon Magazine

Have you ever killed a man?
Have you?

I asked first.
C'mon what do you think?

No?
Yeah, you're right. But I guess it depends on what your version of a man is, because I've had the carcass of many dead males. I've eaten certain parts of the bull, if you know what I mean.

This is a conversation with Michelle Rodriguez, the Jersey girl actress who brought a dose of urban verite to Girlfight and serious cajones to the fluffy Blue Crush. She doesn't elaborate on her bullfighting experiences, and I decide not the push her. After seeing the way she KO'd her onscreen boyfriend in GF, I think I know what she's capable of.

This summer, Rodriguez straps on the flak jacket for SWAT the big-screen adaptation of the '70's cop show with the most disco-lectric them song of all time. Samuel L. Jackson, LL Cool J, and Colin Farrell round out the cast of special-ops cops trying to transport a crime kingpin to prison. Adapting TV classics is child's play for Rodriguez. "I used to play Knight Rider a lot," she says. "I'd be like KITT, get over here!" Driving one of those fake toy cars where you turn it on and spin the steering wheel and move this piece of cardboard back and forth-- that was my Knight Rider vehicle."
So Michelle Rodriguez always wanted to be David Hasselhoff? " Yeah-- it's so funny," she says, laughing her smoky jersey laugh. "The Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman were hot, but most of my heroes were dudes, because they got to have all the fun."

Guys do have a monopoly on action in Hollywood.
Yeah, but that's changing. A lot of people are like overriding the whole cliche. The really interesting thing would be to find the balance: A male character and a female character both empowered on the same level. The distinction isn't which one's more powerful, it's which power is more intriguing. Cleopatra in the woman or Hercules in the man?

Does SWAT strike that balance?
Oh, come on! It's an action film. Nobody wants to see that on the screen-- If they did, it wouldn't be called SWAT.

Well, at least you got to pack some serious heat. What's it like to shoot movie guns?
It's actually really boring. The thing is, (we've got) all these safety things, ever since Brandon Lee (was accidentally killed with a prop revolver on the set of The Crow). I mean, thank God we haven't made that same mistake again, but it's kind of annoying because you have to really play with your gun, you know? (laughs) I have to go to the range and get a license. I have to really train.

Has anyone ever gotten the best of you? Is there one bad playground incident that still burns you?
I think one time in my life I got totally pummeled by this chick. Her name was Stacey Abraham. I was in fifth grade. That pissed me off, because I was new in school and I wasn't picking on anybody. People just chose to pick on me because I looked intimidating. It was my first day at school, and homegirl comes out and tries to act tough with me, and I'm not taking it from anybody. That was the first and only time when I regretted not kicking somebody's ass. Other then that, I think it's just been learning experiences, where you look back and thing, "I could've don't that better."

Are you still hanging out with Vin Diesel?
Dude, that's old news. Where you been? How long ago did we shoot The Fast and The Furious? Time has flown since then. But he's a cool guy.

I just saw the posters for Vin Diesel's new movie, and some kids in my neighborhood wrote all kinds of nasty stuff on it.
You know what's hilarious? You know what they did to the Blue Crush poster in Jersey City? They gave me and Sanoe (Lake) mustaches, and they put a cock between Kate (Bosworths) legs. Shit was hilarious. I was glad I didn't get the cock in the mouth or between the legs. These kids nowadays.....Meanwhile, when I was a kid, I totally did the same thing, except I was X-ing out the cocks.

You've resettled in California. Do you get back to Jersey City much?
I pass around from time to time. I'm just waiting for a group of Masons to come in and make a pact with the Mafiosos to clean the place up. Burn down some ghetto houses and make it a civilized town again. One of my friends got sliced in her face. My cop friend got shot. And then my best friend's two friends, one got sliced and one got raped. This is all within a 20-mile radius of where I grew up. It wasn't like that when I was growing up.

What are you doing with all your Fast and the Furious money?
I bought a house right by Pennsylvania. I got 29 acres over there. I just wanted to get the hell away from the city, but I made the mistake of getting all the way away. My neighbors are, like, Ku Klux Klan members and deer.

I understand you want to start directing.
I definitely don't want to die a piece of the fucking chessboard. I want to die as a member of the fucking players' league.

Do you think that's what acting is?
Oh, of course. You could be a king, you could be a queen, you could be a pawn, a horse, whatever. But in the end, your not moving yourself. I'd rather play hands on. I trust myself.

Do you want to model your career of any other actors?
I'd like to break my mold. And I'd like my mold to be original. I'd like to have a mixture of Drew Barrymore's career, Ashley Judd's career, and um.....Angelina Jolie. (long pause) Don't mind me, man. I partied too much last night. I stopped smoking and my throat's killing me, and my brain's probably dead from all the liquor I drank to make up for the cigarettes I'm not smoking anymore.

What's your drink of choice?
Right now, Dom. Tomorrow? Probably cheap champagne! Dude, it tastes good. And I'm like allergic to beer and wine.

That's such a movie star thing to drink.
No, it isn't. It's a groupie thing to drink! Groupies drink frickin' Dom. You know why? Because they don't have to fucking pay for the shit.

Did LL Cool J freestyle on the set of SWAT?
All the time, dude. He wouldn't stop! He was beat boxing, he was rhyming. On set: chilling, like what, making beats, trying to come up with the SWAT theme song. He was just goofing off, killing time between shots.

Did he give you any career advice?
Be careful with my money-- that was his greatest advice. He said (she switches to a spot on impersonation of LL), "Watch your money. It's all about cake, baby." To be exact.

Does LL really rock the belles?
I wouldn't know. But I'm sure he does. He's definitely a straight man.

At the end of Girlfight, your character says, "Life is war." Do you personally believe that?
No. It's all persecutive. If you think you have to fight against something, then you have to fight against something. But me personally, I'd rather join the group, then rise to the top of that group and move on to bigger things from there. I'm not down with the whole force against force. If anything, I'll play the defenses and roll with the punches.

(Source: Nylon)