Despite convincing the director to change the script, Michelle’s fight to keep her character authentic has gained her a reputation of being difficult to work with:
“I was very grateful for [the director], but there are fights every now and then. Like, ‘Why is she so hard to work with?’ I’m not hard to work with. I just demand a certain level of respect for the individual character.
Through the years, they’ve realized that the loyalty that fans have for that character is because of those fights because I never fought for anything stupid. It’s not like I’m sitting here, ‘Oh, I want to drive a car through that!’ No, I’m like, ‘If the boys are fighting and you’re a ride or die bitch, you’re gonna get down, so I need to hit somebody’.
Whether I fall down or get beat up, I don’t care, but I am gonna go down swinging because that’s what women in this environment do and if we’re trying to keep it real then, you know.”
Michelle is also fed up with the writers failing to enhance the role of female characters in the film:
“I’ve been making movies with Jordana, who plays the sister of Dom Toretto, for 16 years and I can count on one hand how many lines I’ve had to her,” she told EW. “I think that’s pathetic and it’s lack of creativity.”
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