For six “Fast and Furious films,” Michelle Rodriguez has starred as Letty Ortiz, the “badass ride-or-die” love interest of Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto, Entertainment Weekly says.
But on Tuesday, the actress took to Instagram to announce that she’s prepared to leave the lucrative franchise without a leading lady, unless the next installment brings in more women to balance out the male-heavy cast.
“F8 is out digitally today, I hope they decide to show some love to the women of the franchise on the next one,” Rodriguez wrote, before issuing her threat. “Or I just might have to say goodbye to a loved franchise.””
In some ways, the “Fast and the Furious” movies have been praised for the diversity of its multi-ethnic cast, but that diversity hasn’t extended to gender, with Rodriguez essentially being in a boys club made up of Diesel, along with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Tyrese Gibson, Jason Statham, Chris Ludacris Bridges, Kurt Russell and the late Paul Walker.
Since the first film debuted in 2001, women have joined the cast, including Gal Gadot, Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren, but these additions haven’t created notable scenes or dialogue between the women. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rodriguez says she’s starred in a number of films with actress Jordana Brewster, who plays the sister of Diesel’s Toretto, but she’s only had a handful of lines with her.
“I think that’s pathetic and it’s a lack of creativity,” the 38-year-old actress said.
What Rodriguez is basically asking for is that the next film be able to pass what’s become popularly known as the Bechdel test, which rates a fictional work based on whether it offers a scene or more of two women talking to each other about something other than a man.
The name comes from American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who referred to the issue of women’s representation in popular media in her 1985 comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For.” Bechdel says she based the test on an idea from a friend Liz Wallace and on the writings of Virginia Woolf. The test became better known in the 2000s as studies began to emerge showing that female characters have been seriously under-represented in American films.
A 2015 study by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media showed that only 31 percent of named characters in 120 films, between 2010 and 2013, were women, and only 23 percent of these films had a female protagonist.
The basic “rule” of the Bechdel test is that a movie has 1) at least two women in it, 2) who talk to each other, 3) about something besides a man.
From what Rodriguez told Entertainment Weekly, it sounds like the poor level of female representation in the billion-dollar franchise has been bothering her for quite some time and she’s been trying to figure out what, if any, power she has to challenge the status quo.
“It does weigh heavy on my head — especially in the male-dominated environment that I work in,” she said. “At the end of the day, the only leverage I have as an individual is my participation. That’s the only leverage I ever use with anything. It’s like, look, this doesn’t agree with my ethics, morals. My heart doesn’t feel right doing this in front of millions of people, so I can always oblige myself and depart because money, to me, isn’t as important as my lines that you’re not allowed to cross.”
Universal Pictures, which co-produces and distributes the Fast and the Furious films, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Entertainment Weekly.
