The Women Of Fast And Furious Have Fought To Be In The Driver's Seat
When Rob Cohen made "The Fast and the Furious" in 2001, he couldn't possibly have known that it would eventually spawn one of the largest film franchises of all time. The original film was downright modest, even wispy, when compared to some of the more recent chapters in the overblown "Furious" franchise. In it, an LAPD cop named Johnny Utah ... er, I mean Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) goes undercover in the strange and ultra-cool world of surfers ... er, I mean L.A. street racers to track down and arrest their ringleader Bodhi ... er, I mean Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) for a recent rash of high-profile thefts. Michelle Rodriguez appeared as Letty, Dom's girlfriend, and Jordana Brewster played Mia, Dom's sister and Brian's would-be paramour.
Over the course of the film's many sequels, Letty and Mia would eventually play larger and larger parts in the story and finally be allowed to do more than fall in love, be trophies, and stay off to the side while the male characters do all the driving and heisting. But, it seems, the "Furious" movies have always seemed reluctant to steer away from their ultra-macho male heroes and give their female characters anything substantive to do. A frustratingly common detail throughout all the "Furious" movies are race sequences that feature multiple lascivious close-ups of women's posteriors as they gyrate in booty shorts.
In a 2021 oral history with EW, Rodriguez talked about how much she and her female co-stars have had to push to expand the roles of the "Furious" women and to fight a natural element of sexism that's lingered since the start. It seems it took a lot of time to get behind the wheel.
The trophy girlfriend
In the interview, Michelle Rodriguez recalled Letty being described as a mere trophy girlfriend. Only through active petitioning and dogged insistence did Letty eventually become more of a character. It can be frustrating for an actress to be told they are playing a mere moll with no agency. Rodriguez, it seemed, wanted to change that. Rodriguez doesn't reveal the exact details of how Letty behaved in the original draft of the script she was handed — something to do with being unduly sexualized — and it certainly didn't meet with her approval. She recalls teaching the men a lesson, saying:
"In order to keep it real, I had to school them. [...] I know you guys like Hollywood and all that, but if you want it to be realistic, this is how it really works, and I'm not going to be a slut in front of millions of people, so you're going to lose me if you don't change this."
In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rodriguez now credits the strength of her performance as Letty to the pushback she gave the producers and screenwriters all those years ago. Letty, she recalls, was a tough "street kid," always possessed of grit and aggression. Her anger at the studio translated into Letty's gumption. She said:
"All those fights with the studio about having a female voice and having a character that really represents the true grit of a street kid, a woman — all those fights really paid off. [...] Because I honestly feel like if I would have just agreed to do what I was told to do, I don't think Letty would be here today. And I think that all those arguments I had about integrity really mattered in the end."
Mia
Brewster, meanwhile, was saddled with a similarly trim character. Mia served as a mere love interest for Brian in the 2001 original. Eventually, Mia and Brian would develop their relationship and become spouses, but that still didn't allow Brewster to explore Mia's inner life beyond how it related to her male counterpart. In Justin Lin's 2021 film "F9," Brewster recalled she had a scene with Rodriguez, and their characters were able to briefly converse about something other than a man — a requirement on the gender representation gauge known as the Bechdel Test. But, Brewster said, it wasn't nearly enough. In her words:
"I would love to explore the relationship with Letty because that little bit in ['F9'] was not enough. [...] I'd like to see Mia harness [her] strength when someone crosses her family. Because that's what's really interesting about Mama Bear energy — mess with my children and you're going to see what happens."
In "Fast X," a team of black-suited, gun-toting baddies breaks into Brewster's house to kidnap her and her nephew, and she does have a brief badass moment when she gets to unleash violence on her attackers. She is, however, ultimately rescued by a character named Jakob (John Cena), her brother.
There is going to be at least one more film in the "Furious" saga (Vin Diesel says he hopes there are two more). Letty is now one of the central warriors of the clan. One might hope that Brewster, perhaps with ample screen time, gets her moments as well. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a calm moment of conversation?