Writer: Chris Ahrens | Photography: Peter Dawson

There are still guys who question their masculinity because they were beaten up by an adolescent named Michelle Rodriguez nearly two decades ago. To make matters worse, she was wearing a dress at the time. But, hey, don’t feel too badly about that; the Girlfight star is one hard-hitting young woman. She was pleasant with us, however, answering questions and proving herself at emotional/intellectual depth. My guess is that she would be tougher in a debate than she would be in the ring.
    Regardless, Michelle delivers a hard dose of reality to the matter at hand. She’ll fight nighttime dragons and play fictitious characters on screen, but face-to-face, it’s pure reality. That’s all fine with us, except that her favorite makeup is ChapStick, which presented a unique challenge to our makeup department, since she declined to put anything on her skin for the photos accompanying this article. Her look, her laugh, her voice, her words—it’s there without apology or anything to cover it up. Maybe it’s because she was brought up in the Dominican Republic, where she watched abject poverty entwine itself around the latticework of her balcony, threatening to topple her world. Maybe it’s because she was raised to stand against rules that made no sense to her or her parents. Maybe she’s the latest snowflake to be added the infinite patterns that fall from the heavens, composing that complex quilt known as individuality.
    There was no hesitation or warm-up period either. She walked into the photo studio and, boom! the interview was on. Accom-panying her were her Romanian cat, Precious, and her friend’s dog, Buster. Neither of them expressed strong opinions on anything.

Risen Magazine: Do you think that free speech should just be an open box; say whatever you want?
Michelle Rodriguez: I think it already is that way. I’ve seen tons of documentaries on White Power. Do I think that should exist? Maybe I don’t agree with what they do. Suppressing only creates a bottled feeling that will come out in other ways. I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, but when my grandmother left, I went crazy. I did everything I wasn’t allowed to do. I was careful doin’ it, cuz I still feared Him in some way, shape or form. I loved God. It’s like, What’s the fun of doing it now? All girl schools or all boy schools…Why do you think they do the crazy stuff they do? Suppression. I’m not down with suppression, man.

RM: People are being forced to do a lot of things they don’t want to do.
MR: There are monks burning every day, man, women getting their clitorises cut off, getting rocked to death for looking at other guys. There are lots of things that we’re told not to do. In my eyes, everybody’s journey is their own. They have to learn on their own. Forcing them is not gonna do it. I know that when my parents told me I couldn’t go to a party, it made me want to go 10 times more. When they told me I was allowed to go, I didn’t want to. That’s how things work with rebellious people.

RM: What led you to theater arts?
MR: The ability to communicate with the masses. I sure as hell don’t know what I want to say to them, though.

RM: You’re doing a lot of writing. Are you more interested in writing than acting?
MR: Hell yeah. But I learned that writers are not respected. I was an extra in a Spike Lee movie and I saw some crazy stuff, the way actors got treated and I thought, Oh, that’s not the way to go either. I saw the producers and realized that they were the powerful ones. I started as an actress and I’m gonna work my way up. It’s all about the team, man. Right now I have about five people by my side, where I could put a million dollars on the table and they wouldn’t touch it. I want honest, good people around me. I’ve stopped makin’ fun of people, bein’ mean in bars. If you want to attract good energy, you’ve got to do that. I learned that last year. [Laughs] I guess I’m a slow learner. [Laughs]
RM: Are you a voracious reader?
MR: I read fractions of things, cuz I’m interested. I’ve got this ADD thing going on.

RM: ADD might be a different way to think, not an incorrect way to think.
MR: There is no incorrect in my book.

RM: A lot of American Indians looked at people we call abnormal and even schizo-phrenics as visionaries.
MR: Heck yeah. Most of the geniuses in the world were total kooks. Now we look at these guys like geniuses. From my view, whenever something new is introduced and I don’t understand it, I’m just gonna shut up.

RM: Are acting and writing an attempt to escape pain, to make the world the way you want to make it?
MR: No, not at all. To me it’s like I’m a walking Nerf. I’m here to feel. Nothing that comes out of me is original. I am everything I have experienced since I was a baby. The point is, it’s how you regurgitate, what your throw- up looks like. [Laughs]

RM: Kind of a Jackson Pollock way to see things.
MR: Everything’s an opinion, even things that are square. Someone can look at a mathematic equation and see a shape or a color. It’s how you look at it. People are so busy trying to reinterpret everything and they’re probably saying the same thing the whole time.

RM: You don’t think that there’s absolute truth then?
MR: I’m sure there’s truth to individuals, but that’s just how I feel. My opinion. [Laughs]

RM: How would you feel if you were in a plane and the pilot’s opinion was that to get to Hawaii from Los Angeles, you went east instead of west?
MR: I’d be like, I don’t know anything about flying planes, brother. It’s all in your hands, but if we landed and were in the wrong place, I’d think, I had a feeling…[Laughs]

RM: Are you more interested in fame or influence?
MR: For me, fame’s a tool to communicate. I don’t look at it like a goal. As far as influence goes, if it happens, that’s great. The journey there, gaining the fame is hard. I’ll tell you right now there’s gonna be a lot of good and bad involved in that. I think that you have to do some negative things to do some positive things. You can’t always be light; even light attracts darkness. Finding that fine line between fame and influence, positive in-fluence is gonna be the big battle in my career and my life.

RM: Aren’t you recognized a lot?
MR: Again I look at that as a tool. When a woman of 40 walks up to me, Spanish, and she says, You make me strong; keep it up, or a young girl comes up and says, I like your style that’s hot to me. It makes me realize that all these times when I’m arguing with directors and people think I’m hard to work with, I’m doin’ the right thing. At the end of the day I can’t sit there and think, You know what? It’s just a job. I can’t, no.
    All you gotta do to be famous i