S.W.A.T actress Michelle Rodríguez

Mayte Michelle Rodríguez (born July 12, 1978), better known as Michelle Rodríguez, is an American actress, known for her role in the television series Lost and films The Fast and the Furious, S.W.A.T., and Resident Evil.
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Early life

Rodríguez was born in San Antonio, Texas to Carmen Milady (née Pared), a native of the Dominican Republic, and Rafael Rodríguez, a Puerto Rican who served in the military.She has a total of ten half-siblings or siblings. She was raised by her devoutly religious maternal grandmother and was brought up in her mother's Jehovah's Witnesses religion.[3][4] Rodríguez moved to the Dominican Republic with her mother when she was eight and lived in Puerto Rico when she was 11, later settling in Jersey City, New Jersey. She dropped out of high school at age 17 and later earned her GED.

Career

Rodríguez won her first role, in the low-budget 2000 independent film, Girlfight, after attending her first audition, having run across an ad for an open casting call. She beat 350 other applicants for the starring part of Diana Guzman, a troubled teen who decides to channel her aggression by training to become a boxer. Rodríguez's performance was recognized by both critics and audiences. Despite major industry buzz of a possible Academy Award nomination, she did not receive the Oscar nod. Rodríguez did however accumulate several other significant awards and nominations for the role in independent circles, including major acting accolades from the National Board of Review, Deauville Film Festival, Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards, Las Vegas Film Critics Sierra Awards, and many others. The film itself took home top prizes at both the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals.

Subsequently, she has had notable roles in other successful movies, including S.W.A.T., The Fast and the Furious and Resident Evil. In 2002, she was ranked #77 in Stuff magazine’s “102 Sexiest Women In The World”, and #34 in Maxim’s "100 Sexiest Women". That same year, Rodríguez portrayed Eden in the surfer girlpower flick Blue Crush.

In 2004, Rodríguez lent her voice to the video game Halo 2, playing one of the Marines. She also currently provides the voice of Liz Ricarro in the Cartoon Network series IGPX. From 2005 to 2006, she played tough cop Ana Lucia Cortez on the television series Lost during the show's second season (the character's first appearance was a flashback on season 1's finale, Exodus: Part 1).

In 2006, Rodríguez was featured in her own episode of G4's show Icons. Battle in Seattle, her latest film, is due for release in December 2007, and she is currently in New Zealand filming James Cameron's upcoming highly anticipated scifi adventure Avatar, due out in May 2009.

Personal life

In early 2000, Rodríguez broke off a near engagement to a Muslim boyfriend, citing opposition to religious requirements he demanded of her, which included covering herself completely. In 2001, Rodríguez then dated her The Fast and the Furious co-star, Vin Diesel.In 2006, she expressed a romantic interest in Irish actor and S.W.A.T. co-star, Colin Farrell.In July 2006, Rodriguez told UK's Cosmopolitan magazine that she was not gay, but had "experimented with both sexes".In November of 2006, her openly bisexual Bloodrayne co-star Kristanna Loken's comments to The Advocate were widely interpreted and reported by the media as an admission that the two were in a relationship.Asked about the relationship in April 2007, Kristanna Loken said, "We're great friends. She'll always remain a great, close friend of mine. I'll always love Michelle".
Most recently, Rodriguez was linked to Kylie Minogue's ex Olivier Martinez after the two were seen dining at Chateau Marmont. Rodríguez reportedly spent the night at his hotel room, and the two have been spotted together several times over the course of the last 4 years.

Curve controversy

In June 2007, Curve ran a cover widely considered to be trailing an interview in which Rodríguez would out herself. In reality, Rodríguez never actually did an interview with the magazine and therefore in response, used her blog to accuse the magazine of attempting to "out" her. On her official website she said the following:

As far as rumors go of me coming out, I guess Curve magazine took it upon themselves to out me on the premise of their own suspicions. Whatever, I'm not insulted, I have a big lesbian following, and for whatever reasons they show me love I'm never going to shun, disrespect or neglect anybody who shows me genuine non-psychotic Love. But I will Say this, to put words in someone's mouth and place people in categories affects them for sure, especially in this business. I don't know what the intent behind the curve magazine cover was. I wasn't informed of it, I had no Idea they were planning on using my image to sell magazines. By the way I only got kicked out of five schools not six...

Look, I guess what I'm trying to say ultimately is that, if I wanted people to know what I do with my Vagina I would have released A sex video a long time ago. Yet i haven't done that. You know why? Because extremists can rarely be mediators, mass communicators, or chameleons for that matter. I have bin an extremist in my personal life, Yes. Yet I have never really over stepped the boundaries consciously in the public eye. I have really focused on specific types of films for that very reason, I don't need to be limited by judgmental labels, especially in a society ruled mostly by an MTV A.D.D. mentality. See, I even labeled, It's almost second nature to the generation Y culture, and what about the popular culture groups that buy up all the US Weekly's, In Touch's, Hello's And the readers of sites like Perez Hilton.com.

If I were Ellen [DeGeneres] I may get away with: ' The I'm Gay' level of exposure, but I'm not a comedian, I like men; (real ones anyway) and I've only been in this business for 7 years, not 20. Years of recognition can give a person lots of leverage especially if you have many years of positive recognition under your belt. There are certain things that can close doors between a celebrity and certain audiences. Especially in a world where walls are constantly being put up by people seeking comfort and groups to belong to. There is so much out there, over-saturation of music, media, Agenda News, war, political drama, high school prom drama, image drama, religion drama, Bully drama. All this drama is caused by one thing, not understanding the true meaning of communication and the real power behind it. It's tough to learn, I'm working on it myself, but when people come out of nowhere and put words in my mouth or call me Gay, they should really think for one second How they could truly affect my life by doing such things. You don't know what producer, director, would be husband or future audience member may be influenced by these opinions and media content.

Asked about the Curve issue, Rodriguez told E! Online,

"People are gonna say what they say. It’s like Eminem...I am whatever you say I am. Free press...it’s all good—the more, the merrier. Just as long as it doesn’t mess up my flow if I ever want some shows, ya know? That would suck”.
In the July/August 2007 issue of Curve, editors responded to this criticism by stating:

"If you read the article, you will see that the author did not, in fact, 'out' Rodríguez; rather, the article stated both that 'Rodríguez has never publicly come out' and 'Rodríguez has said she is not a lesbian."

source www.wikipedia.org