Michelle Rodriguez Gets Candid About the Hollywood Gender Gap at the Bulgari Party
Michelle Rodriguez in Alaïa at the Bulgari Party. Photo: Getty Images
It’s pretty hard to compete with the knuckleduster engagement rock offered by Johnny Depp to his now-wife Amber Heard, but Bulgari did a pretty good job on Tuesday night, dressing the actress in one of its iconic diamond and pink gold Serpenti necklaces, which snaked around her neck like a question mark. Heard, who attended the presentation of the house’s newest High Jewelery collection – Italian Gardens – in the brand’s George V Paris store, was joined by a handful of other strong women, including actresses Clotilde Courau, Juliette Binoche and Michelle Rodriguez, who, between eyeing the gems, caught up on the hot topic of gender equality in Hollywood. It was the latter – known for her tough-chick roles – who had the most to say on the topic, however, although not before pausing to shout, “I love this songggg,” followed by a raucous a cackle as Ella Fitzgerald’s “This Time The Dream’s On Me” hit the speakers. We sat down with Rodriguez to talk gender gap and running for president.
Yahoo Style: Where do you think things stand regarding equality in Hollywood?
Michelle Rodriguez: I could go on all night about this.
YS: But do you think it’s woman’s time?
MR: It’s kind of like, for thousands of years we’ve been saying, ‘Hey, equality, equality, equality.’ And then the last 100 years or so we got to write books and stuff about it and be a little bit more vocal about the position that women in general hold. The suffragette movement helped a little bit, but ultimately, at the end of the day, pussy rules the world with or without inequality’s existence. And I say that with love.
YS: Please elaborate…
MR: It’s just once men get the money and the power, the mate and the legacy is all that’s left and the woman is the key to that so keeping her in a lower position in the totem pole of society helps the man feel grander than he truly is. And that’s a philosophical thing that’s not going to untie itself in a hundred or even a thousand years.
YS: Maybe you should run for president?
MR: No, I just try to look at things from a holistic perspective.
YS: Are you working on any women-related projects?
MR: No…I don’t like going and being all feminist about it. I want to find the guys in Hollywood who understand that there’s a massive gap in the market and want to fill it. And understand that it’s productive and can make money if it’s done right. And right now everyone’s going to start jumping on the bandwagon and making [women’s] movies and I feel a lot of shit is going to come out of that. A lot of people are going to start making movies as affirmative action, which doesn’t work in a creative sense. I’m all about female-driven projects that are male friendly. Like, balance it out.
YS: What are you working on?
MR: I’m developing a project that I’d like to do with Greg Rucka, an amazing Marvel Comics writer and novelist – that’s a franchise I’m interested in doing. He’s the only guy who, when he writes women, doesn’t write like a guy writing for women; he’s very sexless when he writes, and I like that.
YS: You are looking much more demure than usual. What are you wearing?
MR: Awww, that’s sweet. I’m wearing Alaïa. I just discovered that you can say a lot without speaking. And when I discovered that I said to myself, oh my god, I’ve got to find out what’s going on in the fashion world. I’ve been missing out all these years.
YS: And your choker?
MR: A friend let me borrow her necklace, it’s a vintage Bulgari piece from 1931.
YS: But going back to your look, what’s changed?
MR: The shift is because I’m in my 30s now and I kind of like want what’s inside my mind to express itself out.
YS: Something more feminine?
MR: Yeah. Well, I’ve always been feminine but nobody’s ever been able to see it because I’m too busy running around doing masculine things, and not everybody’s in my personal space so they don’t see who I really am. It’s hard.
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