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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 2000)
All You Is Glove Newcomer MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ boxed herself into the starring role in Girlfi^ht, a rim> romance that doesn’t pull any punches. BY GILLIAN FLYNN GIRLFIGHT: ANDREA KUSAMA: JAMES BRIDGES STYLING: ISABEL CARTER/LUXE; HAIR: CLYDE HAYGOOD/LUXE; MAKEUP: SHARON GAULT/LUXE; TO LAND THE LEAD ROLE IN Girlfight, Michelle Rodriguez had to get punched in the face. The fledgling actress had been auditioning for the film’s starring role for nearly a month when writer-di rector Karyn Kusama ordered her into the ring with a seasoned fighter, r— me guy wnacKea me, and I flipped out,” Rodriguez remem bers. “I turned into an animal— I mean, who wouldn’t? That’s when she told me I had it.” Kusama’s hesitancy is under standable. The 32-year-old NYU film school grad was embarking on her first feature film—an indie, yes, but with a decent $1 million budget, thanks in part to some funding from her mentor, Lone Star director John Sayles (who can be spotted in a cameo as a sci ence teacher). Kusama knew the cast ing of her female lead was a make or-break proposition. She’d been searching for a female Marlon Brando to play the troubled Diana Guzman, a glowering teen from the Brooklyn pro jects who finds grace and confidence in the ring. Rodriguez, however, was far from Strasberg-certified. Girlfight wouldn’t just be her first starring part; it would be her first speaking part. The closest Rodriguez had come to acting was a year of extra work in films like Summer of Sam and For the Love of the Game. They weren’t exactly break through performances. “You’re lucky if you see my hair or the gum on my shoe,” she says. Still, Rodriguez, 22, radiated a scrappiness that snapped Kusama to attention when she strutted in— late—to a Manhattan-warehouse cast ing call of more than 350 women. “She had a sort of fierce warrior spirit that you just don’t see in many people, re gardless of gender,” Kusama says. “She really had it, and then some.” Good thing, because once Rodriguez got the part, she had to undergo four and a half months of intense training. Kusama insisted there’d be no clever, Rocky-esque choreography during the film’s fight scenes; they’d have to be as real as cinematically possible. That meant a grueling four- to five-hour regimen five days a week: two miles of running, followed by rope-jumping, speed-bag work, and sparring, topped by sit-ups, push-ups, and weights. “I loved the training,” says Rodriguez. “I ate it up and spit it out. The most difficult part was getting from Jersey City to Brooklyn every day. I hate sitting down for a long time, you know?” Kusama, once an avid boxer herself, videotaped Rodriguez’s fights so she could point out her weaknesses. By the end, Ro driguez’s trainers at the famed Gleason’s Gym announced she was on the path to professional pugilism. Kusama was satisfied. While Rodriguez was studying the sweet science, she was also learning the ropes of acting. Kusama mandated that she watch A Streetcar Named Desire, The Hustler, and A Woman Under the Influence. Her more seasoned costars—Jaime Tirelli (Carlito’s Way), who plays her train er, and Paul Calderon (Out of Sight), who plays her father—offered occa THE BOXER Rodri^u ez in a reflective mood T -I PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATTHEW WELCH b
