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Q&A with Steve Czarnecki
Producer of G4TV's Icons talks Michelle Rodriguez
by: Leigh Lewallen (www.michelle-rodriguez.com)
June 2006

Q: What is the intent of this show?

A: The intent is to show that Michelle Rodriguez has proven to be an icon.
To tell the story of how she has redefined the bad girl in Hollywood,
but getting there she has overcome her share of challenges and is still
jumping hurtles. In preparing for this episode the last thing I wanted
to do was to include any mention of the recent DUI charges and all the
negative attention she's gotten in the press with it. But the truth is,
you simply can't tell the story of Michelle Rodriguez without justifying
why she has earned this bad girl image and talking about the bad things
that happen to bad girls.

The good thing here is that I didn't need to dwell on that for the
entire show to make the episode interesting. I spoke to Michelle about
this the 1st day I met her and she understood that it's part of who she
is, that she made a mistake, paid for it and moved on, but it still is a
mark on her career that will take some time to wear off. So the DUI
incident is sprinkled in around the 3rd act of the show, but in no way
does it sour this amazing 1/2 hour that reveals the softer, sweeter,
intelligent side of Michelle.

Q: What was your very first meeting with Michelle like?

A: Going into this shoot, I was told that she'd be a handful, and granted
from researching her roles and all the recent legal troubles, I could
see how someone would easily believe that. But honest to God, from the
moment I met her she seemed so genuine and down to earth. She was
personable, funny, cracking jokes, within the 1st five minutes of
talking to her on the way to the shoot she convinced me to go sky-diving
with her when we got back to LA.

An hour later we finished the 1st part of the interview and as we were
in the middle of changing locations I pulled her to the side and said;
"I can only hope that this show will let people see the person I just
spent the last hour talking to. You are so grounded, so in touch with
yourself and the universe, so real and unlike anything people might
perceive you as being." She blushed and said "Thanks man, that's tight"
and then we hit our fists together and headed up to the roof to continue
the shoot.

She blew me away...THIS Michelle Rodriguez was for some reason being
hidden to the world under a pretense that she is some pain-in-the-ass
gun toting tough chick, and I right then and there knew that my mission
would be to make this show a veil-lifting experience that would shed
light on the MROD very few get to meet and know.

Q: What types of activities were done for this episode? I know
she went skydiving, but beyond that....?

A: I was very lucky to get Michelle for a couple of days in New York for
the interview portions of the show. I taped her in a loft in Chinatown
that an old friend of hers runs called "Studio 7", then followed her
around that night at the People En Espanol party where she mingled w/
super-stars of the Latin world, and then we shot all over Central Park.
In LA the crew and I were fortunate enough to catch up with her once
again and follow her from take off to landing with an actual sky-dive. I
also taped some exclusive footage of Michelle at home, some candid gold
of her playing games, reading and interacting w/ her cat Precious.

Q: Who are some of the 'friends' interviewed for this show....are they
just close friends or were some of her former costars interviewed?

A: Because it's Summer and most shows are on hiatus, it was tough to get
any of her LOST co-stars. Josh Holloway, Terry O'Quinn and Adewale
Akinnuoye-Agbaje all expressed interest in talking about her, but they
were either touring around the country or in Europe and we couldn't get
our shoot schedule to align to include them. We did speak to "Blue
Crush" co-star Kate Bosworth while at the SUPERMAN RETURNS press junket
about Michelle, as well as comic-book legend Stan Lee this past week.
The supporting interviews you'll see come from her close knit inner
circle of friends; from her roommate and business manager Giancarlo,
some girlfriends in New York- Hannah and Adriana, Michelle's attorney
Henry, her buddy Alex and her make-up person Darrell. All had nothing
but kind, positive and caring things to say about Michelle...

Q: Tell me more about working with Michelle, were there any funny
stories that didn't make it filming-wise into the show?

A: On the 2nd day of taping I arranged for us to go tape at the Central
Park Zoo. So on route in a cab thru New York I tell her that where we're
headed. She just gives this sign and says "I hate zoos" and then starts
talking about her experiences in Africa and how the animals are free and
how lions just lay around and don't provoke anyone and it's ridiculous
that they were caged. I felt like an idiot for booking the zoo...MY
thinking was, oh, she's doing a clothing line which proceeds would
benefit kids and animals, great we'd see both at the zoo. Well I had to
scratch that idea once we arrived and we ended up just taping around
various parts of Central Park itself which was great.

One great thing though I'll never forget. I was with my crew on the red
carpet line for the People En Espanol party. Michelle arrives...she gets
out. On one side of the carpet are all still photographers & paparazzi,
on the other side were fans, the crew and myself. We had full media
access to shoot wherever we needed because People knew we were doing
this show on Michelle. At the moment she arrived, this was the best
angle. So she gets out of the limo...1st turns towards the photographers
and does her thing, Michelle then turns towards the other side, says
"Que Pasa" then makes eye contact with me. "G4 whats up Man!!!?!?!" she
yells, pushes people aside and breaks around the side of the railing to
come give me a hug and a kiss. She then intros me to the editor of
People magazine (Richard Perez-Feria) and another friend of hers (Amnon
John). We all start talking, she wonders (with concern) why I didn't come w/
her in the limo to the bash, then says she'll talk to me inside and
don't forget I'm jumping out of a plane w/ her when we get back to Los
Angeles! Then she hit the carpet for the news/video crews.
People standing around, must have been like; "Who the Hell is THAT
guy!?!?"

And that's how Michelle is...if she likes you, if she can sense that
you're real and not a shark, she embraces you right away and makes you
feel like her best friend. The chemistry continued for the rest of the
nite and thru next days shoot and by the time we said goodbye in New
York we had exchanged emails and phone numbers and now talk almost once
a day.

Q: You said you taped her at home, what's she like when she's there?

A: As with anyone's house, it's a house, it's not a museum; it's very lived
in, and reflects who Michelle is. There are books all over the place,
from Alex Grey to Salvador Dali, from books on Alchemy, Philosophy and
Art. Her cat Precious is adorable and if you ever get a chance, ask her
to tell you the story on how she came into possession of the cat, it's
quite the adventure! She's currently working on a new clothing line
called "Ishkidada" and she had markers, art pads and fabric swatches all
over the place. She also has this incredible wall in the office just
filled with notes, scribbled ideas, pictures and plans for her career
and business ventures. She is very much in her zone there and was having
quite the time in-between reading and drawing as she played
"Ghost-Recon" and "Tekken 4" on the Playstation.

I taped about a 1/2 hours of footage for the show that I needed, but
instead of thanking me and pushing me out the door, she invited me to
stay. Well after offering me some Coconut Juice, the next 2 1/2 hours I
was blown-away by the smarts this girl possesses. She verbally engaged
me in hearty conversation about Religion, Philosophy, Art, Spirituality,
Archaeology, the Lost City of Atlantis, Alchemy, UFO's and more. As the
conversation would shift, she'd excitedly jump up and grab a book off
the shelf that led into the next topic, which you'd swear she was a
scholar on...how she obtains so much diverse information in the head of
hers is simply mind-boggling.

Q: So what aren't we going to see in this episode? What ended up on the
cutting room floor?

A: He only have 21 minutes to do the show (the other 9 allotted for
commercials), we had to cut out a few minutes of a section on IGPX and
the voice-over work Michelle does on that. And there were just smaller
topics we couldn't really expand on such as Michelle the Karaoke singer,
What would she be doing had she not broken into the business and just
tons of more supportive comments from her friends...

Q: Will the show have a certain look or distinct style?

A: Well there's an underlining theme...or direction of the show, and that's
Michelle going skydiving. So within the 1/2 hour we're building and
building the steps she takes to go from the ground to jumping out of the
plane itself. So the energy builds, the music is up beat, the editing
and pace of the episode is steady, yet there are some moments where it
slows down, but then picks up momentum again. I can take credit for the
content and direction of the show, but I have to give credit to our
editor John Davis, he is amazing. I would say something or suggest an
effect and he would figure a way to visually transform it on-screen for
the show. And just so the readers know...it took about 2 days to do each
Act of this episode and we have 4 acts. Most of that time is doing moves
with images and shuffling sound-bytes around as well as trying to find
the right music to fit the mood of the sections.

Q: Are there any inside jokes or secret things we should know about?

A: I got to have some fun with Photoshop and create some original images of
Michelle for certain sections. When Stan Lee talks about Michelle as
TIGRESS, I took an image and altered it to make Michelle a Tiger hybrid,
it looks really cool. Then I created an image taken from Michelle in her
Sky-diving outfit and made her into a Super-Hero to also accentuate Stan
talking about Michelle being a comic book character. Also, there's a
section where Michelle is talking about her jail time after the DUI and
how she stayed positive and reinforced how we all should embrace the
things that are important in our lives. Well the pace slows down and
there's a montage of a shot of her and her cat Precious, then Michelle
on the Red Carpet, you'll see her lean in and give a big strong hug to a
good looking guy (ahem), that's me. Remember that story about how she
singled me out at the People party? that was the moment...so I figured
w/ all the work and energy I put into this, I had to throw in a little
cameo somewhere. But it actually does work because it is more a symbol
of embracing important things in your life...

Q: Are you happy with the end result?

A: I am very pleased, I felt that I put together the show that will open
people's eyes and perceptions of Michelle Rodriguez that has been unseen
by the world. A few people here at G4 have come up to me and said they
saw the rough-cut, or watched her interviews when we were digitizing
them into the system and they thought she was so cool and really dug
her. They all said the same thing, which you NEVER see this side of her
in the public reports and they really fell in love with who she is as a
person. Coming from co-workers who are in the demographic, if they
totally were turned onto the show, then people in Middle America and
around the country will so even more. My Executive Producer came up to
me the other nite and said "Hey, the show looks fantastic; Michelle
really opened up to you and it shows" that was a great feeling, and
accolades like this have been coming in from other Execs and Senior
staff to me, so I couldn't be happier. But to be honest with you...I
wasn't working to try and impress them. I was working to make a show
that Michelle would love and embrace and that her fans, and non-fans
would be exposed to and gain a better and well deserved appreciation of
her from, and I now know walking away that my mission was accomplished.

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