Interview: Michelle Rodriguez in Halo 2

Michelle Rodriguez has been a gamer all her life -- now she's using her Hollywood fame to be an active participant in the game world. The 26-year old actress has provided the voice of Rosie Velasco in True Crime: Streets of LA and Calita in Driver 3. Now she's starring in one of the biggest videogame franchises of all time, Halo 2, as one of your squad-mates. On the big screen, the actress has been active in video game roles, as well. She starred in the original Resident Evil movie as Rain Ocampo and she recently completed principal photography for BloodRayne in Romania, in which she plays Katarin, the second original character she's brought to life on the big screen for a videogame movie.

When she's not filming movies like Girlfight, The Fast and the Furious, Blue Crush, SWAT, and Control, the Texas native spends a good portion of her down-time in trailers playing games. Rodriguez just got back from a two-month BloodRayne shoot in Romania and took some time out of her jet-lagged schedule to talk with us about video games.

Gamestar: What can you tell us about your Halo 2 character?

Michelle Rodriguez: She's this Navy Seal kind of character. She's down with the main Halo guy, Master Chief. She gets killed off early on in the game, but she keeps coming back. She eggs you on throughout the game. I'm like your little partner throughout the game. I'm gonna be this annoying voice in your head.

GS: Can you talk about the process of bringing your character to life for Halo 2?

MR: I hung with the editor at Bungie for a bit. I got the gist of what they wanted to do. They had about 45 minutes of dialogue written. A lot of short sentences. I give players a hint of what they're supposed to do, but at the same time I end up pissing you off.

GS: What did you bring to the table in terms of dialogue for this character?

MR: I improved a lot of the dialogue. I didn't read any of the corny stuff and improvised a lot. They would give me the situation, like here comes a four-winged monster that looks like a vagina, and I'd react to that. There was a lot of cursing going on.

GS: That's OK. This is a Mature-rated game. Did you get to play Halo 2 while you were there?

MR: I got to play multiplayer. That's so much fun. The only problem was that I'm playing with the editor and the guys who made the game. These guys know everything. They'd tell me where to go to not get killed. But they also know all the codes. I hate playing games with the guys who make them because they humiliate you time and time again...and they do it with a smirk on their face.

GS: Did you play the single-player game?

MR: I watched them play some of the single-player game. The graphics are hot. All those things that annoyed you in the original Halo because you couldn't do them, like getting into things and controlling objects, you can now do. The levels are more detailed and there's a lot more of this game to play.

GS: Were you a fan of the original Halo?

MR: I played the first game about 10 times. I liked it a lot. The only problem is that the past four years I've been busy being an adult and making movies. I haven't had as much time to play games.

GS: Do you get to play on set?

MR: I wasn't able to play my PlayStation 2 in Romania. I like to read and do other things on set, but there'd be days where I just wanted to play some games and I couldn't.

Sometimes I don't like to get into games on set, because I'll be in the middle of a game and then I'll get called to set and it pisses me off. And when I get to the set my mind's still on the game and I might forget what my lines are.

GS: Can you talk about your second videogame-to-film role in BloodRayne -- Katarin?

MR: When I met with (director) Uwe Boll he said basically this character is nothing and he wanted me to make something of her. So I developed this character and worked with Uwe on her. She's a vampire fighting chick. She turned out to be an interesting character to play. She holds the fort at the Brimstone Association. Michael Madsen (who plays Vladimir) and Matthew Davis (who plays Sebastian) come across BloodRayne, who's this half-human, half-vampire character that's always battling between her vampire and human side. When I see her I'm like, "Danger, danger," but she ends up working with us.

GS: Do you get to kick any vampire ass in the movie?

MR: Not vampire ass, but human thugs. There's plenty of action in this movie.

GS: Do they kill you off in this movie like they did in Resident Evil?

MR: I had a lot of fun with this movie. I may have to reconsider my stance on not doing movie sequels.

GS: What was it like filming in Romania?

MR: Romania is insania. It's crazy over there. People call it a third-world country, but it's not. It's more like a one-solution-to-anything mentality. If you're at a restaurant and ask for butter and it's not on the menu, they're not going to bring it to you, even if they used it to cook your chicken.

GS: What did you do out there when not on set?

MR: I did four-wheel riding. I saw some of the most beautiful sunsets -- we did a lot of night shoots. I was hanging with Kristanna (Loken) and Matthew (Davis) a lot, so we had fun out there.

GS: What was filming in Transylvania like?

MR: There are houses there older than America. We went to this lake and there were five old cities underneath the water. I'm on a boat and there's a 550 year-old church on the bank and cities under water.

GS: Did you play the BloodRayne game before doing the movie?

MR: I did, but I didn't like the first game that much. The way you could move BloodRayne was really cool. But fighting Nazis seemed like it'd been done before. I wanted to get out of those buildings and interact with people. I like what they're doing with BloodRayne 2. They seem to be going in a good direction.

GS: How does working on a videogames like Driver 3 and True Crime compare to working on a film?

MR: When I went into the recording booth, I'd get to see a rough cut of the game and hear the audio recording. I then took it from there. With Driver 3, I played a chick who smuggles cars back and forth. She's a little rebel. For True Crime, I played a kick-ass cop who falls for a rebel cop. I feel it out and then I jump in.

GS: Now that you've been in three videogames, what are your plans in the interactive realm?

MR: I want to start getting into game development. I've been meeting with game companies about that. I'd like to create games like GTA -- realistic cities that you can play in but with multiplayer. I'd like to sit down and work with the developers and be involved with the creative process. Vin Diesel and John Woo have game companies. Those guys aren't stupid.

GS: What games are you looking forward to this Christmas?

MR: Halo 2, the new Splinter Cell game, Mortal Kombat: Deception...you know they have all these new mini-games in that game. I'll spend most of my time playing them.

GS: What kind of games do you like playing?

MR: I like RPGs and tactical stuff. The one thing I'd like to see in the tactical and combat games is more random people -- like you have in GTA -- that can get in your way. Right now, it's basically your friend or your enemy in those games. I'd like to have people just walking around that aren't involved in the combat. It would give the games a more "I'm in this world" feel.

I remember that feeling I got playing the first Resident Evil, which used sound to put you in the game. You're walking down the hall and a bird breaks through the glass window. You felt like you were there.

GS: How long have you been playing games?

MR: I've been playing videogames since I was 12 or 13 years old. My brother had a Colecovision. My all-time favorite for Atari was Pole Position. I loved Pitfall. And then for Sega Genesis it was Space Harrier. And then Nintendo came out and I was hooked on Mario Bros., that corny stuff. I didn't like Zelda too much. I don't know why. And then Street Fighter for Super Nintendo came out and I was just on that. Then Tekken for PlayStation. Virtua Fighter and stuff like that. I love my video games. Today I like games where you can plan out your action in advance like SOCOM and Rainbow Six 3.

GS: What do you think of today's videogames compared to when they first started?

MR: Today's videogames are the difference between Virtua Fighter and Pong. The vision I had was that you could one day control a character that looked like Brad Pitt around on the screen. That's my dream and that's where I think videogames are ultimately going. Games are becoming more realistic so that an audience can become a director of the action and interact with the game.

GS: What do you think of videogames being the new comics for Hollywood films?

MR: We've already made our mark on the big screen from Street Fighter to Tomb Raider to Resident Evil. Hollywood film makers understand that games provide a great marketing opportunity for films. Games are interactive and fun and I don't see anything better in terms of entertainment. A lot of people in Hollywood don't understand the power of videogames. I'm already there helping with the development of games.

These game makers are like Spielbergs. The stuff they're making today is just amazing. And Hollywood comes looking to make these games into movies.

-- John Gaudiosi