Michelle Rodriguez on How Portraying Strong Women On-Screen Was an Act of "Survival"

For much of female history, our experience has been depicted through the male gaze. From the media we consume to the marketing we see for things like lingerie, it has historically been catering to the guy in the end.

Early in her career, Michelle Rodriguez made it a point to solidify herself as an actress that will breathe life into women who stand in their strength unapologetically.

While promoting her latest project Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (out in theaters on March 31), she tells People Chica that this choice was one linked to "survival."

Rodriguez notes, "I think that was just survival. I was just surviving, you know what I mean?"

She continues, "Action movies were the only genre where they wouldn't make me kiss some guy's a** all day, you know, in a movie that—I found it boring. Girls chasing guys around and, like, romance and then drama. And anybody who would take a woman seriously, she had to be in a relationship in a movie. And it's all about the guy."

This scenario, which has played out many times across various decades of film, is something that has been a professional turn-off for the actress.

"And I'm just like, 'Oh, can I fall asleep, please?' So for me, it was an escape, you know? And my path in my career has always been escaping and finding freedom. It was the only place that I could find freedom was imitating men," she adds.

"You know, it's not a true feminine force for me. Like I feel as I've gotten older and I've discovered my own femininity and my softness, my soft power, I honestly don't think that I've been able to explore that in a movie really, because the only place that [...] they ever give a woman a platform to do that, usually when I was growing up or when I was in the industry over the course of these 20 years or so, has always been through a relationship with a guy and it's all about the guy in the end. And I'm just like, Oh, so boring," Rodriguez details.

The Widows actress notes that it has even been the case for her in her famed role as Letty in the Fast franchise.

"Even Fast and Furious, like, to be fair, like we've got the longest-running relationship, but thank God, you know, I'm with Vin [Diesel] and he like, gives me my freedom because otherwise, I would have left a long time ago," she quips.

Rodriquez notes that she's interested in the place women have reached as it pertains to storytelling in films.

"You know, we're in an interesting place. Thank God, finally, now I feel like women have more of an opportunity to grab the microphone and explore what that's like to speak for themselves. You know, and it's been a long time coming," she says

She concludes, "And I think that when that happens we as women on Earth are going to discover new things about ourselves as we, like, are free to explore what it is to be us. You know, without the male input, for once. So, we'll see what happens."