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