Photo: Universal Pictures
If the fictional universe of the Fast and Furious franchise is a convincing one today, it’s partly thanks to Michelle Rodriguez. She was the one to threaten to quit if the script for the first movie wasn’t revisited.
The Fast franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary (side note: we’re all old!), and some members of the regular cast sat down for an oral history with Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. The entire piece is worth a read for long-standing fans of the franchise, if only to relive some of the moments from the first film. Michelle Rodriguez’s contribution to the film that started it all also stands out.
The actress has spoken before about how she pushed for more realism with female characters, which meant revisiting the script right before shooting, so that it included more backstory and more interaction for them. At one point, she even threatened to quit if the writers didn’t do the women in the FF universe justice. She’d grown tired of having to re-write her lines, she said.
It all started with her reaction at seeing what Letty would be like on the written page, fellow cast member Jordana Brewster recalls. That reaction was “No, I’m not playing that,” which then became Michelle rewriting Letty and taking her from a trophy girlfriend to “this really layered character.”
This included more scenes with Letty, a bit more backdrop and even a fight scene for her, which, Michelle says, ended up with her accidentally hitting the stunt guy. In order to make a convincing movie, they needed convincing characters, and that ultimately meant empowering Letty. Because no guy like Dom Toretto would get with a woman unless she was a badass.
“It was a reality check for them to realize that the streets don't work like that,” Michelle says. “In order to keep it real, I had to school them.” She also threatened she would leave the production if they didn’t make the requested changes, which they did. The rest is history, as the saying goes.
Producer Neal H. Moritz confirmed that The Fast and the Furious had been penned by male writers, so having a woman’s input on the female characters was the magic touch they needed. In the end, it was perhaps this first step done by Rodriguez before the 2001 movie that opened the way for her to get her own Letty spinoff – allegedly.
The actress has spoken before about how she pushed for more realism with female characters, which meant revisiting the script right before shooting, so that it included more backstory and more interaction for them. At one point, she even threatened to quit if the writers didn’t do the women in the FF universe justice. She’d grown tired of having to re-write her lines, she said.
It all started with her reaction at seeing what Letty would be like on the written page, fellow cast member Jordana Brewster recalls. That reaction was “No, I’m not playing that,” which then became Michelle rewriting Letty and taking her from a trophy girlfriend to “this really layered character.”
This included more scenes with Letty, a bit more backdrop and even a fight scene for her, which, Michelle says, ended up with her accidentally hitting the stunt guy. In order to make a convincing movie, they needed convincing characters, and that ultimately meant empowering Letty. Because no guy like Dom Toretto would get with a woman unless she was a badass.
“It was a reality check for them to realize that the streets don't work like that,” Michelle says. “In order to keep it real, I had to school them.” She also threatened she would leave the production if they didn’t make the requested changes, which they did. The rest is history, as the saying goes.
Producer Neal H. Moritz confirmed that The Fast and the Furious had been penned by male writers, so having a woman’s input on the female characters was the magic touch they needed. In the end, it was perhaps this first step done by Rodriguez before the 2001 movie that opened the way for her to get her own Letty spinoff – allegedly.
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