Michelle Rodriguez has long been a fixture in the beloved Fast and Furious franchise, first appearing in the action movies in 2001. Currently, the star is filming the next Fast and Furious movie, Fast X, and is scheduled to return to the big screen as Letty Ortiz in May 19, 2023. However, did you know Rodriquez almost left the freewheeling franchise?
In 2015, in an interview with The Daily Beast ahead of the seventh Fast and Furious movie, Furious 7, the actor shared how she wasn’t totally on board with Letty’s character progression. Originally, Letty was meant to cheat on Dom (Vin Diesel) with the Fast and Furious character Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker). And, let’s just say, Rodriguez wasn’t the biggest fan of this proposed love triangle.
“Is it realistic for a Latin girl who’s with the alpha-est of the alpha males to cheat on him with the cute boy? I had to put my foot down,” she said. “I basically cried and said I’m going to quit and, ‘Don’t sue me, please – I’m sorry, but I can’t do this in front of millions of people.'”
Rodriguez wasn’t the only one who was against the cheating scene, as the actor revealed that Diesel was on her side in getting the script changed.
“Vin was the first one to pull me to the side while I was crying, and he just looked at me and said, ‘I got your back. Chill out and let me handle this, and you’re right — it makes me look bad anyway,'” she continued. “And there you go. That was the beginning of the Letty fairytale.”
As Fast and Furious fans already know, Letty and Dom would later go on to be married in the franchise, so it seems like the adjusted romance plotline was a good call.
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