10 Actors That Really Need To Stop Repeating Themselves
5. Michelle Rodriguez
The easiest way to describe Michelle Rodriguez' filmography is that she pretty much always plays what could be described as a 'Michelle Rodriguez-type character'. The 39 year-old actress has made a career out of playing strong, feisty women in action movies that can kick a** just as well (if not better) than the men, but in her very first big-screen role she received serious critical acclaim for her dramatic work.
The breakthrough role in question, as the lead in Karyn Kusama's 2000 sports flick Girlfight, showed genuine promise and saw Rodriguez win an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance and both National Board of Review and Gotham Awards for Best Breakthrough. However, Rodriguez' next role was as Letty in The Fast and the Furious and since then, she has almost exclusively played variations on the same archetypal character.
As well as five Fast and Furious movies we have also seen this strict adherence to type in two Resident Evils, two Machetes, SWAT, Avatar, Battle: Los Angeles, Walter Hill's controversial The Assignment and next year's Alita: Battle Angel. While Rodriguez should be commended for carving out a niche for herself in the male-dominated action genre, she has never lived up to the early promise shown in Girlfight by playing it safe and sticking to her established persona.