Telling detractors to just “lay off,” actress Michelle Rodriguez responded to critics who have lambasted her being cast as a transgender woman in a new action movie titled “(Re)Assignment.”
Some transgender-rights activists have criticized the casting, saying that the role should have been set aside for a transgender woman actress.
In an interview posted on Tuesday at The Hollywood Reporter’s website, Ms. Rodriguez explained her rationale for why the detractors aren’t getting to her.
“I think the transgender situation, you could talk about that if you were talking about the film that was focusing on the psychology or the social aspects of the situation. This is, you know, it’s not about that,” Ms. Rodriguez explained in an interview recorded at the Toronto Film Festival.
“It’s an action-genre film, and we’re not trying to get psychological or deep about it, so lay off,” she added with a laugh. “This is an entertainment piece. Calm down, guys, I’m on your team.”
Ms. Rodriguez, joined in her interview by director Walter Hill, also complained about how the working title they used during production, “Tomboy: A Revenger’s Tale,” was changed in response to critics.
“We like the title that we made the film under,” said Mr. Hill, adding that the title was “more accurate.”
“It’s a B-genre movie, you know what I mean?” Ms. Rodriguez said. “So, like, it’s about all the elements being packaged together in, you know, in a really cool entertainment situation.”
“So everything relies on something else. So by changing the title into something that’s not a good sell, you’re pretty much damaging the possibility of the success of the entire film,” she said.
According to a plot summary posted on the Internet Movie Database, “(Re)Assignment” follows Ms. Rodriguez’s character of Frank Kitchen, “an ace assassin who is double crossed by gangsters and falls into the hands of a rogue surgeon known as The Doctor who turns him into a woman. The hitman now a hitwoman sets out for revenge, aided by a nurse named Johnnie who also has secrets.”
Ms. Rodriguez, an alumna of the “Fast & Furious” movie franchise, went on to say while the “funnest” part of making the film was making the action sequences, she found the sex scenes to be “nerve-wracking” and “hardest” to shoot largely because she and Mr. Hill have “different ideas of sensuality.”
“I’m obviously more feminine in my approach to things,” she said.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.