Most movie stars celebrate their latest home video release by encouraging their fans to check it out, rent it, stream it, buy it, etc. But Michelle Rodriguez is not most movie stars. She took the opportunity this week, on the day that the blockbuster The Fate of the Furious arrived on Digital HD, to say that she will leave the series unless they start treating women better.
“F8 is out digitally today,“ Michelle Rodriguez wrote on Instagram, “I hope they decide to show some love to the women of the franchise on the next one. Or I just might have to say goodbye to a loved franchise. It’s been a good ride & Im grateful for the opportunity the fans & studio have provided over the years… One Love.”
Michelle Rodriguez plays Leticia “Letty” Ortiz in the multi-billion dollar action series. Her character was the love interest in the original film, didn’t appear in the second or third, died at the beginning of the fourth film, and came back in the sixth as an amnesiac whom the male hero and villain fighting about. Over the last three films Letty has taken on a larger role in the series, but she’s still sharing screen time with a very large, mostly male ensemble cast.
Universal Pictures
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Michelle Rodriguez described some of the changes she hoped would come to the Fast and Furious franchise, in regards to its treatment of women.
“First and foremost, bringing some more women on the good team, not just bringing an amazing actress to play the bad guy, and having more female camaraderie, having women do things independently outside of what the boys are doing — that is truly the voice of female independence,” Michelle Rodriguez explained, in a lengthy and well-considered critique, in which she takes apart the difficulty male screenwriters to seem have writing for female characters, and the unusual fact that over the course of eight films, she’s barely had any dialogue with her female co-stars.
But in the interview, Michelle Rodriguez was particularly concerned about representation, especially to cultures that don’t treat women as equals.
Universal Pictures
“Do you know that women like taking apart motors sometime? It happens. My assistant used to do it with her dad. She knows motor parts and I had absolutely no clue, but people just don’t know until they put it out there,“ Michelle Rodriguez told EW.
“I feel there’s a dire need for that,” Rodriguez continued. “That’s what I’m imploring with the studio because these franchise films go to the hardest markets on women. What I mean by hardest markets on women, I’m talking about territories where women, culturally, are treated like trash. I do not feel comfortable not sending an opposing message to that kind of thing. When you are benefiting so much from all this money that’s coming at you, I think you should be sending out some subliminal messaging to balance out that energy between man and woman in these territories, where culturally they’re not evolving out of it.”
Universal Pictures has yet to comment on Michelle Rodriguez’s critique, but they do have plans for two more Fast and Furious movies, and a spin-off featuring Rodriguez’s male co-stars Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham.
All Nine ‘Fast and Furious’ Movies, Ranked:
Top Photo: Universal Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
All Nine Fast and Furious Movies, Ranked
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9. Fast & Furious (2009)
The fourth Fast & Furious movie is, in no uncertain terms, a total mess. The action is all over the place and the story makes no impact. The best you can say for Fast & Furious is that it moved all the pieces in position, setting the stage for some spectacular follow-ups that pushed the franchise in a more exciting direction.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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8. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Vin Diesel sits the second Fast & Furious movie out and it's easy to see why. 2 Fast 2 Furious is a lackluster retread of the original, with forgettable drama and merely adequate action. The studio obviously didn't know what to do with this property yet, although at least somebody had the good sense to amplify the enjoyably overt homoerotic subtext.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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7. The Fate of the Furious (2017)
The action is as big as ever in The Fate of the Furious, but Dominic Toretto's motivation for betraying his team is kept secret for far too long, and Deckard Shaw's turn to the light side completely glosses over the fact that he murdered a beloved character. These two flaws make it a little too difficult to get invested in this outing.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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6. Furious 7 (2015)
What should have been the best and biggest Fast & Furious became a strange meta-textual farewell to the series' late protagonist Paul Walker, after he died tragically during filming. The action is great and Deckard Shaw is an incredible villain, but the changes that had to be made to the storyline make little sense. It's a miracle the film works at all.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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5. The Fast and the Furious (2001)
The original The Fast and the Furious is a shameless rip-off of Point Break, with a hunky young FBI agent going undercover with seductive extreme sports thieves and questioning his loyalties. But it's a good rip-off, with a fun cast, an emotional storyline and a great climactic high-speed heist.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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4. Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Letty comes back from the dead - with amnesia, no less - in this ecstatically excessive sequel. The set pieces are epic, the emotions are epic-er. Everything about this movie is gloriously ridiculous in the best possible way.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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3. Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)
Before director Justin Lin started making Fast & Furious movies he made a big splash with A Better Tomorrow, a low budget crime drama about overachieving teenagers who turn to delinquency, mostly for the hell of it. Better Luck Tomorrow is a scrappy, somewhat ramshackle drama that packs a big wallop. More to the point, it introduced audiences to the character of Han, who would go on to star in multiple Fast & Furious movies, starting with...
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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2. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
A departure for the Fast & Furious franchise, but a welcome one, Tokyo Drift is a slick and effective Karate Kid riff that stars Lucas Black as an undisciplined street racer who moves to Japan and has to learn a new way to drive from Han. The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift would have been great as a stand-alone movie, but it became weirdly significant to the franchise as the filmmakers started turning the fourth, fifth and sixth installments into an elaborate prelude to its events.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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1. Fast Five (2011)
The best Fast & Furious movie is also, no bones about it, one of the best action movies in a very long time. The team dynamic is spot on, the action is incredible, the humor is genuinely funny, and the plot is simple and effective. The criminals from the previous films have to become unlikely heroes, turning their vehicular skills against a common enemy. Dwayne Johnson also shows up to finally give them a worthy opponent. And it all ends in one of the most wonderful and absurd car chases ever put on camera. Fast Five is the fastest and arguably the most furious installment yet.
Photo: Universal Pictures
