She shot Shannon; what's Ana Lucia's next target?
By William Keck, USA TODAY
WEST HOLLYWOOD — Last week, Michelle Rodriguez became the most despised person on television when her Lost character, Ana Lucia, accidentally killed Shannon (Maggie Grace) with a gunshot to the chest. Though that's the reaction Lost producers had hoped for, Rodriguez was irate when she read the script.
Rodriguez has played tough before, but her biggest challenge may be to win audience sympathy for her Lost character, Ana Lucia.
"I was pissed off," admits Rodriguez, petting her cat, Precious, inside the modestly decorated home she has lived in for the past three years. "I just signed on to the show, and everybody's going to hate me! What am I — the bad guy now?"
Apparently so.
Ever since Ana Lucia Cortez, who was briefly introduced late last season in one of Jack's airport flashbacks, was revealed to be alive with a handful of other survivors from Oceanic Airlines Flight 815's tail section, she has relentlessly bullied Michael and Jin. And most unforgivable: She has turned last year's bad boy, Sawyer, into her patsy.
"Catty and bossy" is how Rodriguez, 27, describes Ana Lucia. But that's not how the character, originally conceived as a woman in her 40s, was pitched by Lost producers.
"They told me she was somewhat of a control freak, but that the character would arc. My meeting with (producers) J.J. (Abrams), Damon (Lindelof) and Carlton (Cuse) was that I'm tired of Hollywood typecasting me in the same thing. I'm pretty much Ramb-ina."
The Jersey City-raised Rodriguez punched out a niche for herself as a go-to tough gal with her breakout role in 2000's Girlfight. Similar film roles followed with The Fast and the Furious (2001), Blue Crush (2002) and S.W.A.T. (2003).
Gripe as she might about the roles she's offered, Hollywood continues calling. She has two horror movies in the can (BloodRayne, due Jan. 6, and The Breed, due later in 2006) and has signed a deal with Marvel Comics' Stan Lee to develop a film version of Conan the Barbarian comic book villainess Tigress.
One offer she had to turn down: a role on Desperate Housewives as the girlfriend of Eva Longoria's philandering lawn boy lover, John (Jesse Metcalfe).
"You think I'm going to be the girl to get cheated on?" she scoffs. "Give me a break!"
Asserting her independence, the single actress wears a $5 brass band on her wedding finger — purchased in Hawaii during her Blue Crush film shoot as a sign of her marriage to herself — and rents a house on Oahu's north shore, far from other Lost cast members' homes.
Though she gets along with the whole cast, she has grown closest to Lost's other two new regulars, Cynthia Watros (Libby) and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Eko). "We've definitely grown a bond together," says Rodriguez. "Cynthia's always cracking jokes whenever she sees someone sad. And Adewale's this quiet cat, but always has an answer if you have a problem."
The owner of five pit bulls at her 28-acre New Jersey residence, Rodriguez admits, "I wouldn't think twice about killing somebody if they were trying to kill me." But that's Rodriguez. Ana Lucia, she says, "needs to lighten up."
And that's what Lost producers intend to do — in time. Lindelof warned Rodriguez in advance, "You will have to be the tough girl for a while, because that is how people know you. But then we're going to peel back the layers, just how we do with all the characters."
Viewers will see another side of Ana Lucia emerge over the next few episodes. Tonight's installment (ABC, 9 ET/PT) is devoted to the post-crash back story of Ana Lucia and the other "tailies."
Next week, she takes center stage when flashbacks reveal her surprising pre-crash occupation.
"It's a very significant and interesting vocation that I don't think people will have seen coming, considering the kind of person she is," Lindelof teases. "Her flashback takes place two or three years prior to the crash and reveals her first day back on the job after being away for a while."
And throughout the season, Ana Lucia will be dealing with Shannon's death.
"It's our job as writers," Lindelof says, "and Michelle's job as an actor to gain back the audience's sympathy."
