Michelle Rodriguez on Gender-Bending New Movie Role: ‘It Took Playing a Man to Make Me a Woman’
Michelle Rodriguez is opening up about her gender-bending role in The Assignment. The actress plays a macho male assassin who undergoes a forced sex-change operation at the hands of an evil doctor seeking revenge.
The movie is controversial, with critics calling it tone-deaf, tasteless, and even transphobic.
Rodriguez — along with the film’s writer, Denis Hamill, and director, Walter Hill — defended the movie, saying the character is not transgender.
And now, Rodriguez is sharing what it was like to play the character Frank Kitchen.
She told Page Six, “I had to tape my breasts down, and I still looked like a hermaphrodite.”
The Fast and Furious actress said playing a man made her realize she’s more feminine than she thought.
She said, “All my life I felt alienated by women. They were into the lipstick, nails, and dressing up, and I always felt like a tomboy, like I didn’t fit in. I felt like I had masculine qualities versus feminine qualities just because I am an alpha. I do what I want, and never let anybody tell me otherwise. I am kind of hardcore about that. But then when I go and actually play a man, I realized I am such a girl; there is nothing manly about me.”
She said the toughest part was wearing a beard because it was itchy. And there was another thing she said was itchy… here’s a hint — it was a male prosthetic.
Rodriguez did get some free therapy while playing Kitchen. She said, “I was so confused growing up, so it took playing a man to make me a woman.”
The Assignment was released in theaters on April 7.
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