As hard as it is to imagine Michelle Rodriguez's F9 Letty Ortiz not being seen as an equal to Dominic Toretto, that was nearly the case in 2001's The Fast and the Furious.
During a The Fast and the Furious retrospective hosted by EW, Rodriguez and co-star Jordana Brewster discussed how Letty's character changed. "When Michelle [Rodriguez] read her role, she was like, 'No, I'm not playing that.' And then she changed it completely," Brewster stated. "It went from a trophy girlfriend to this really layered character."
Rodriguez added, "It was a reality check for them to realize that the streets don't work like that. You don't just get with a guy because he's hot. There's a hierarchy there. Can that hot guy get beat up by who you're dating? If he can, then you don't date him, because why would you want to lose the hierarchy?"
The F9 star continued, "In order to keep it real, I had to school them: 'I know you guys like Hollywood and all that, but if you want it to be realistic, this is how it really works, and I'm not going to be a slut in front of millions of people, so you're going to lose me if you don't change this.' And they figured it out."
Rodriguez also pushed for her character to actually fight someone in the film -- a trait Letty would frequently retain across future movie entries. As she explained, "I felt like you don't sit around and let your boys throw down without getting your hands dirty. If you don't, then are you just there to model? That doesn't work where I come from. So I fought for that -- and then I remember hitting the guy in the face by mistake! [Laughs] It was so messed up. I did the same thing in Girlfight and Avatar. I didn't mean to, I'm just really bad at it."
Following The Fast and the Furious, Letty briefly appeared in 2009's Fast & Furious before apparently dying. Her "death" pushed Dom (Vin Diesel) and Paul Walker's Brian O'Conner to join forces to locate Letty's killer. However, Fast & Furious 6 revealed that she survived, but was left with amnesia -- leaving Dom, Brian and their crew discovering Letty working alongside the mercenary Owen Shaw. Dom eventually convinced Letty to return to their side and, by the end of Furious 7, her memories of their life together were restored.
Directed by Justin Lin, F9 stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, John Cena, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell and Charlize Theron. The film arrives in theaters June 25.
Source: EW